Anniversary
by Bayzen
Summary: Fang found his birth family, but someone shows up knowing all too much for comfort. He feels inclined to go back to the flock... Of course, there's no promise that deceit won't follow. Mild Fax. Post FANG. T for safety.
1. Chapter 1

Alright. My first actual fanfiction. So I guess this is mostly a test-run, because I pretty much have no clue what I'm doing, or whether my writing style and plotline will interest anybody but me. Anyhoo, I'll stop my nervous ranting and move onto the story, huh?

Don't ask about the title. That's just what I saved it as on Microsoft word for lack of any good, witty title ideas. Got suggestions? I'll definitely consider them.

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I probably don't own it. However, I do own a really slow laptop that's I'm using to tell you this...

* * *

I remember a year ago. I'm not sure if it was an exact year ago, but I know it was close. That was when I left the flock. At that time I had to go out and do _something_ or I might actually start to realize just what I did. It was all for survival, surely you can understand that. And let me tell you, if you can understand that, you re a hell of a lot smarter than me.

I'd found my parents, yes. That's what I had set out to do, the very moment after I set down the note addressed to the flock. It took me a while, I'd had to take down a few Erasers (Who knew those would come back?), got locked up once, and I searched a good number of Itex facilities. I know I seem like an awful person for finding my own parents, and not any of the rest of the flock's, but I do have a reason. One other thing I found out was that they have each of our information in separate buildings. Purposely making sure we wouldn't hit a jackpot with all of our statistics.

When I say parents, I mean I know _who_ they were. I only _found_ one parent. My mom to be exact. Apparently my father had died, just doing his job. He had been a police officer, and was killed almost four years ago.

A little over sixteen years ago they were in the hospital and were told their newborn son had died. Turns out that newborn son was actually kidnapped and sold to an Itex plant in Death Valley.

Now just a couple months ago I had shown up on the doorstep of her modest two-story house, exhausted and wary. A tall, dark haired, olive skinned, and dark eyed lady opened the door. Before I had even had a chance to explain who I was she invited me inside, leading me into her living room and offering me a seat on the couch. After I had told her about being her son she didn't cry, she just grinned wide and pulled me into a hug, murmuring about knowing I'd come home.

She might not have been an I'll-bake-you-brownies-and-cookies-whenever-you-like mom, but she was close enough. Even when I told her about my wings she took it pretty cool. She looked a bit astonished and confused, but once I showed her she just smiled and said, "They're unique alright." She tried to stay away from talking about the wings, but if something came up she'd talk about them like it was the most normal thing ever.

I guess compared to my idea of a drug-addict teenage girl who got knocked up and gave her kid away, this was pretty amazing. More than I deserved, in my opinion. At least if you include the stunt I pulled last year. I still feel like a jerk over that one, but I wasn't exactly planning for the twenty-years crap. God knows I'd never survive that long without the flock. I was planning on finding my parents, then going out and hunting down what I could find on Itex. Once I had enough information, I'd find the flock and finish off the nasties. Of course, once I met my mom, I didn't want to just up and leave her alone again. I decided a year, give or take would be okay. It'd be a stretch, but I should be able to make it.

Well, anyone who wasn't an unlucky, mutant, birdkid castaway should be able to make it.

* * *

Like it? Hate it? Let me know! Any review is better than none at all at this point :D


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, that first chapter was a bit short, and this one was going to be about the same size, but I sort of added what the next chapter was going to be. Generosity for the win.**

**It's a bit choppy and-**

**You know what? I'm gonna stop right there before I go into a rant and let you decide what you think of this chapter. **

**Disclaimer: The internet knows all. It also knows I don't own Maximum Ride. Stupid internet.**

* * *

I was sitting in my room, which was the old guest room, lying on the bed and tossing a paper ball into the air, catching it as it fell back at my face and throwing it back again. I was going to school in less than an hour. My mom (who I've tried calling Sarah, but she insists on me calling her Mom) told me to try it, and if I absolutely despised it, she'd find a way to pull me out.

This time, at least, I wouldn't be forced into doing something that seriously degraded my dignity. No, I'm not saying school, I'm talking uniforms. Thank god there were no uniforms. And _Mom_ had actually gone out and bought me a whole wardrobe. And most of it was decent; things I would actually wear.

With a sigh I stood up, chucking the paper ball into the trash can and picking up my backpack. I ran down the stairs and glanced into the kitchen, which was on one side of the stairway, the living room on the other.

"Nick!" Mom smiled, looking up from a plate of eggs and toast. She had told me to stick with the name Nick, since I had used that already, and I'd be somewhat used to it. "There's breakfast,"

After quickly finishing off a decent portion of our eggs and toast, I went out to the driveway where a dark blue pickup truck sat. It had been my dad's old car and I'd managed to get a drivers license through (mostly) legal means. It wasn't like I hadn't driven a car before. Seriously. Driving for hours on end with Nudge chatting your ear off and the pyro-twins talking about all the interesting bombs they could make out of the car made you pretty immune to all of those "distractions" they warned you about in the classes. Cell phones, friends, the radio and all that crap. Honestly, I'd rather make sure I'm not on the verge of becoming the target in an airstrike.

I had to admit; when I climbed into the driver's seat I couldn't help but wonder why I was driving the freaking _hick mobile_ to _school_. But I had to remind myself that this was a small town (compared to some of the surrounding towns, it was a city. That says a lot.) in the Midwest. I wasn't going to stand out.

"*"*"

My science teacher glanced at the slip I'd handed him. I hadn't been signed up for school by the deadline, so I was sort of a student under construction, I guess. In fact, it was the second day of school; but it was still only _my _first. I had already gotten a lot of looks, probably because the school only had around three hundred students total, and none of them had seen me yet. Not a single person had been brave enough to step up and talk either.

"Alright then, Nick, you can have a seat next to Adam, who will happily answer any questions you may have," Mr. K said, looking over at a guy who rolled his eyes and continued talking with the boy next to him.

I walked over to the open seat behind him. I saw the girl the next desk over glace at me, obviously debating whether to greet me or not. I didn't blame her, I was quiet and wearing all black. I probably reminded her of some murderer from CSI.

"Hey," She said quietly, giving me a quick, half-hearted smile.

I looked at her, not saying anything. Naturally.

Her eyebrows rose, "Not even a nod? What sort of manners are those?" She smiled a bit more openly, showing she was joking.

"Habit, not manners," I replied, still sticking to keeping my word count low.

She shook her head lightly, "You're Nick?" She asked quietly as Mr. K began to write on the board, only to realize the marker was dry halfway through a phrase. I gave her a slight nod. "I'm Kacey," She replied and began to carefully copy the teacher's notes into her notebook.

A little over half an hour later the bell rang and I started piling up my stuff.

"What's your next class?" Kacey asked, picking up her stuff, nimbly catching her pencil when it fell out of her arms.

"*"*"

Kacey hung around with me for the rest of the day in a non-clingy way and I even sat with her friends during lunch, which was something I would have never imagined myself doing. They were decent people- her friends. The guys were kinda perverted and they were all a bit crazy, but they weren't exactly annoying. Here and there I'd notice something that reminded me of the flock, which was like a stab in the heart and a slice of reassurance at the same time.

"So," Kacey asked as we rounded about our lockers at the end of the day. Our lockers were right beside each other, her last name coming right after mine. "What's the verdict?"

"On school?" I inquired.

"Sure," She said. I'd noticed how she never really answered any question with a simple 'Yes' or 'No'.

"Not horrible," I decided, shutting the locker and we both headed towards the front doors empty handed. Gotta love study halls.

"Don't get used to it," She mumbled back.

"Don't like it here?" I asked.

"Well, I've been stuck here my whole life and it's all so mundane to me. Same thing every day," She drawled, "You at least had some sort of spontaneity. I mean, you just started school here, and you obviously weren't here before,"

If I had been a talkative person, I probably would have muttered something along the lines of "You have no idea," But we should all know by now that I, Fang, am practically as close to anti-talkative as it gets without being a mime. So instead I just nodded assent and kept my mouth shut the rest of the way home.

* * *

She was okay I guess. A relatively normal girl. Attractive, sure, but in a subtle way. And even if she was pretty, Max was still beautiful. And that's the not-lovesick version. But to be completely honest, Kacey was the only one I talked to. I just didn't have any motivation to make friends. And apparently, she didn't have any motivation to _not_ try to make friends with me. I suppose it didn't really bother me anyway, since it was nice to have one person who didn't label me as the emo freak, because we all know how that story goes.

It was all good until-

"It's a dance, Nick," She said, half watching me, half glaring at me. "Not a sacrificial ritual. Really, just come. You don't have to dance, just sit around and eat our school out of its food stand,"

One of my eyebrows rose, "Please?" She asked quietly, hooking her hands together and giving me Bambi eyes.

I groaned, why did all girls know about Bambi eyes? It wasn't fair. "Fine," I muttered, "But it better not be formal,"

"It's not, I checked and it's casual." She grinned, "Even if it was formal, you know you wouldn't get out of it,"

"Don't go making bets you might not win," I warned, casting her a sidelong glance.

"Oh," She said with mock superiority, "I'm very persuasive, you never know,"

I snorted, "Don't act so sure of yourself,"

"Hm?" She hummed, pretending not to hear me. I looked over at her, realizing she actually might not have heard, fact being that she had her attention on the book she was carrying. Another thing about Kacey; she hardly ever stopped reading. Sometimes talking to her was like talking to a walking two-in-one thesaurus and dictionary. Not to mention she corrected grammar every other time you said something wrong, yet she used the word "Ya'll" more than anyone else in the county.

We were walking back from the used bookstore she insisted upon stopping at, arguing that "There might be a book there now that won't be there later!" Reluctantly, I had agreed, so long as she stopped singing the lyrics to her latest favorite song, which she only ever remembered three lines to.

I heard a squeak of rubber and next thing I knew, Kacey was on her hands and knees, her book on the ground in front of her. I held back a laugh, and offered my hand for her. "I told you not to read and walk at the same time," I smirked.

She wiped her hands against her jeans to rid them of the grit from the sidewalk and snatched up her book, getting to her feet on her own, glancing loathingly between my extended hand and an unlevel crack in the cement where her toe must have caught. "I'll survive," She grumbled.

"Well," Before I could get in a second word, she whacked my shoulder with her book. Yeah, she also had a short temper.

"Don't even say anything," She said, pointing the binding at me threateningly.

"Fine, o, Great One," I said, smirking and holding my hands up in surrender.

Apparently content with my response, she turned to continue walking, keeping her book at her side. "You need a haircut," She observed.

I gave her a look, which she returned, appearing a bit comical with the imitation.

"I'm not suggesting you shave your head," She said, "Just trim a couple inches, so you don't look like a samurai, or whatever."

"I look like a samurai?" I asked, rolling my eyes.

"I don't know, don't they have long black hair, too?" She said, pinching a strand of my hair.

I swatted her hand away, "How would I know?" I shot back.

She shrugged, "But Fang, really, it's girlishly long," She said with a smile, then it wavered.

I felt a something in my gut. _Fang._ "How do you know my name?" I questioned, growing defensive.

She looked at me with something between shock, guilt, and fear. "Fang, I-" She looked down, avoiding my gaze. After a short pause, she looked back up at me, "Can't we at least get out of public?"

I glared at her. If she knew my name, there were only two possible things that could explain it. Maybe three. She was working with Itex, she had recognized me from the air shows, or she had some sort of voice in her head, like Max... By the look on her face, I ruled out the idea of her recognizing me, and the last choice was very unlikely... "No, you can tell me now," I said, my jaw set. Now that I knew something was up, anything could be a trick.

"Fang, I swear," She turned and started to walk again, slowly. She watched the ground for a moment, a confused sort of look on her face as she tried to find the right words. "It was a long time ago," She said, looking ahead, squinting slightly, "Itex decided they needed a back-up plan after you and the rest escaped. I- I'm not really sure how it all worked out, but they started testing me," She paused, "I was supposed to bring you all back together so they could wipe you all out at once. It was Dylan who really saved you all. Making you split. You see," She said, "When you're all together in one place, wouldn't it be easy to just drop a bomb on all of you and take you all out at once? They won't risk killing just you or the flock, because if one finds out about the other's extinction, then they know that Max, or you alone could be enough to bring Itex crashing down,"

"You're trained to kill us?" I asked, finding the idea a bit funny. A teenage girl who was barely 5'3" bent on destroying the flock. I was also rather upset, knowing she had kept this from me, but I was pretty sure that if she still planned on killing me, she wouldn't be telling me everything. Villians just don't work that way. Unless they're too cocky to understand how easily it allows the good guy to get away.

"Yes, but they chose the wrong candidate," She said, "I was already a little too smart to be so easily brainwashed. I understood that it was wrong to go by their one-sided stories alone. Somewhere along the way I met Dr. Hayden. She told me about you all, also, and the CSM,"

"Double agent?" I inquired.

"Yeah," She said, "I- I promise I'm not going to do anything against you or the flock,"

"I'm not sure if you'd be able to, you're kinda... little."

She shot me a look, then her face softened, "They tried to genetically enhance me, too," She murmured, "They weren't sure it would work, but they thought that if I had wings, you'd trust me more,"

"So," I asked quietly, "You have wings?"

"No," She replied bluntly, "Not yet anyway,"

* * *

**Well, there's the second chapter.**

**Reviews? Suggestions? Criticism? It's all good; hearing your opinions makes me happy :) See?**


	3. Chapter 3

**You know, as I write this I'm realizing how impatient I am to move this story along. I'm not really expecting this to be very many chapters long...**

**Disclaimer: If I owned any part of the Maximum Ride series, I wouldn't be writing fanfics. I'd be making sure ANGEL comes out sooner, but I don't own it, so I'm stuck with writing fanfics. Hope ya'll don't mind.**

* * *

I pulled up to a tan ranch house on top of a hill, surrounded by fields and spotty patches of trees. I'd agreed to pick Kacey up for school. She still didn't have a driver's license. According to her teacher, she was too cautious while driving. Weren't you supposed to get in trouble for reckless driving? Not being careful? Whatever.

She ran out of her house, a bagel in one hand, poised as high above her head as she could reach as a pair of mismatched dogs - a Newfoundland and a Yorkie - ran to try to hijack her breakfast. The Newfoundland almost succeeded.

She climbed gratefully into the cab, sinking into the seat and lazily buckling her belt before switching her attention to her bagel.

"Bright and early," I smirked, knowing how much she disagreed with the phrase.

"Early," She mumbled before taking another bite, "Not so bright,"

I rolled my eyes and headed down the drive and onto the highway. Kacey lived approximately two miles out of town with her aunt. From what I understood, she didn't like to talk about her parents, fact being, she hadn't mentioned a single word to me about them, and I wasn't going to pry. That would be slightly out of character.

"Anything new?" She asked, reaching for the radio dial. I flicked her hand away. She shot me a glance, but didn't say anything.

"You know the answer to that," I replied.

"See?" She sighed, "This place is like a big black hole of nothingness,"

"It's not so bad," I replied, "Better than other choices,"

She looked at me for a long moment, "I guess you probably find it a luxury to have a bed and not living off house mice," She decided.

"Desert rats," I corrected lightly, "Not mice. Rats are better,"

She rolled her eyes in disgust, "Nasty,"

"Oh right, you'd rather try eating a cactus,"

"I'm not a vegetarian!" She exclaimed. We had just pulled into the school parking lot, and a few people from outside had heard her outburst and were glancing in the windows. She slouched even lower into the seat. I swore if she did that again, she'd be on the floor.

"Close enough,"

She shot me a half-hearted glare and released the seat belt, pulling her bag over her shoulder, popping open the door.

When we got into the building, I could tell there was something up. Living on the run your whole life; being hunted down, you kinda can sense when something's wrong. Like some of you feel when you know somebody's staring at you, except that, well, your life might actually be on the line.

I gave Kacey a look, but she seemed pretty oblivious to it. She also didn't seem to notice that weird you're-being-watched thing. "Kace," I said quietly and she glanced up.

"Yeah?" She replied, "Forget where your locker is?" She asked, looking honest, but I could see the humorous glint in her eyes.

"No," I snapped, "Can't you- ?" I inquired, a bit more curtly.

She looked back ahead, "There's someone here," She said, "I know,"

Oh so she _did_ notice. I guess she's been working with the devil's spawn for a few years now. I shouldn't presume she was totally clueless. Pah. I rolled my eyes as she stopped and started putting her combination into her lock.

I stood beside her, my shoulder resting on the locker next to hers (A.K.A. - mine). I hadn't brought anything home, so I didn't feel the need to go into my own locker. Especially when I was a move away from sprinting back out into the parking lot.

"Calm down," She warned, hanging her bag up. I wasn't sure why she carried it around. She never had homework since she was practically a nerd, but she normally kept little more than a book and a phone in it. Well, I guess I shouldn't be complaining. Every other girl had a freaking purse. Half of them pink or leathery. The things likely weighed twenty pounds too. Fun to clock erasers over the head with... Speaking of which-

"Any idea who it is," I asked, my words as quiet as possible and my lips hardly moving.

"Probably someone checking on my," She paused, looking for a word, "Progress,"

I theatrically shuddered. She rolled her eyes, but failed to cover her smirk. "Are we going to ignore them and continue school, or are you going to spaz and go birdkid on me in the middle of the hallway?"

"I'm still deciding," I replied, looking over my shoulder.

She smacked my chest, "Stop looking so suspicious!" She hissed, glaring daggers at me, "They'll catch on!"

"Forgive me," I said back sarcastically, "But what if they bust through the doors and start tying me up?"

"They're already in the school, I'm sure," She replied, stretching onto her toes and reaching into the back of the top shelf, trying to find her pencil.

I watched her for a moment, my eyebrows arched in amusement, "Would you like some help, Midget?"

She looked at me, then stepped aside, "Sure, Hercules," She replied, "I need a writing tool,"

"Would you like a tablet with that?" I asked, easily reaching in and picking out her pencil, holding out for her.

She snatched it from me, "Fries, too,"

"I can second that," I said, leaning back onto my locker.

"You're a bottomless, food-devouring vacuum, you know that?" She said, shutting the locker and facing me. I responded with a cocked eyebrow just as the warning bell for first class sounded.

First hour was one of the three classes we didn't share. Probably because she had advanced math, science, and English.

Told you, nerd. Another funny thing about it was that she got upset when you called her that. It's just really amusing to see this girl ticked off. Probably because ticking off a flock member meant injury for someone, and there wasn't anything Kacey could do to injure me. Well, almost. She wasn't shy of kicking people where it counts.

"Try not to kill anyone while you're on your own," She muttered, turning away.

She just had to ruin it, didn't she?

Not to mention how hard her instructions were to follow. First thing I noticed when I came into math was a substitute teacher.

I mean, really people, can you be any more obvious? And as if that wasn't enough, the teacher guy kept giving me evil looks. By now it's pretty much screaming _"Hey you! Yeah, you, Birdkid! We're here to kidnap you and send you back to the hellhole you call the School!"_

I sat silently in my desk and shot the glares back. After about half an hour, he gave up. I wasn't particularly surprised. I've been told that when I glare at people like that, they get the feeling I'm just going to grow claws and fangs and maul them to death.

I guess it fits the name.

That's the same thing Kacey said when she mentioned it to me.

The rest of the day pretty much followed this precedent, the three classes I didn't have with Kacey had substitutes, and one of the classes I did have with her. Every time I was on the edge of punching the "substitutes" in the face, duct taping their hands and feet together and throwing them off a bridge into the Mississippi.

How's that for hospitality?

"Stop glaring at your history book, Nick," Kacey said, "It's not going to grow legs and run away. You're not getting out of the assignment," She shot me a pointed glance from across the table. We were in the last class, our shared study hall, and I had achieved absolutely nothing in the past forty minutes.

I shifted my stare to her and she looked back for a good minute before growing edgy, "Aren't you too old for staring contests yet?" She snapped.

One of my eyebrows arched and she set her jaw. "Stop _staring_ at me, _Nick_, and do your homework," She growled, her eyes narrowed on the pre-calculus book in her lap.

I reluctantly looked back at the history book for a moment, then slammed it shut. "Kace," I whispered.

She looked up, irritated. "Nick," She said back in annoyance.

"How long will this last?" I asked.

"A day? A week? A month?" She shrugged, "I don't know,"

I shot her a 'that helps' look, which she ignored.

The bell rang and we dumped our stuff off at the lockers and she passed by in the hallway, "Hey," I said.

She looked back, "Yes?"

"Where are you going?"

"Soccer," She replied, "I suppose it would be a bad idea to leave you unsupervised, though," She eyed me skeptically.

"*"*"

**Kacey POV**

I kicked the soccer ball back to Jessica, who had chosen to be my warm-up partner, careful to use the outside of my left foot. She stuck her toe under it and popped it into the air, catching it nimbly as we gathered into a circle. I shot a quick glance in the direction of the bleachers. Fang was still there, thank god, lounged against a railing with his hood pulled up.

When I dragged him out to the field and told him to stay put and let me know if anything else happened, he gave me a glare and I almost thought he was going to refuse. I don't exactly see why he was so upset with the idea. I mean, most guys I knew would be okay with sitting and watching a bunch of girls in shorts run around.

Apparently he'd rather take a nap. And that was alright with me so long as he didn't go ruining the act. If Itex were to figure out that I was betraying the contract I signed, I'd be as good as dead. So would Fang. And I wasn't about to let that happen.

About fifteen minutes in we were scrimmaging, and after the first goal I glanced back up at the bleachers to make sure Fang hadn't actually fallen asleep and nose-dived it down the bleachers.

I'm sure you can guess what happens next...

He was _gone._

Well crap. I should have been expecting this, or least been a bit more prepared for it.

As the girls started to set back up I ran to the sidelines. "Timothy!" I called. Okay so the coach's name wasn't Timothy, but it was fun to say, compared to Tim.

He turned to face me. "Uh," I said intelligently, coming up with an excuse, "I need to use the bathroom," He waved me off and sent a sub onto the field for my position as I ran to the gates separating the bleachers from the practice field and looked across the bleachers. I continued past them, trying to make it seem like I was heading towards the concessions building, where the bathrooms were. As I got beyond the stands and could see behind them, I finally saw Fang.

With a glance over my shoulder, I ducked under the bleachers and ran over to him. "You can't sit in one place for ten freaking minutes?" I hissed.

He looked up and held a contraption out to me. I looked at the block in his hand, determining it to be like some sort of cheap, old recording device.

"What the..." I reached out towards it, but before my hand got close, he dropped it and it hit the ground with a muted clash, busting to pieces.

"They're still monitoring us," He said quietly.

"Yes?" I said, knowing the information already. They were going to continue watching and waiting until I managed to convince them I was doing what I was supposed to, or until I failed.

I knelt down, picking up the largest hunk of black plastic and turned it over in my hands, ripping off a piece of the outer shell to find a small chip. Not a potato chip, unfortunately, but a memory chip. "They're also tracking it for some reason-"

I was cut off by the sound of running footsteps. When I looked up I was mainly expecting Tim or one of my teammates, but instead I saw one of the Itex substitute people running in our direction.

Ohhhh- I get it now. They assumed my "scheme" was to convince Fang I was on his side. He would find the recorder, of course. I would deactivate it and take it with me to perhaps, look at it later and they'd keep tabs on us. Now I was in for it. Obviously I wasn't as quick-witted as they thought I'd be.

God, you have no clue how confusing it is to have ties to these two groups. And awful. I'm surprised Fang still trusts me this much. I had pretty much expected him to leave me on the sidewalk then and there, making sure I couldn't go back and tell my Itex buddies where he was off to.

Now I feel worse that we're being stalked by these guys.

The guy came up and glanced between us, then took my arm and pulled me back, probably going to scold me for not doing my job properly, but in that instant I heard a loud crack and saw Fang's fist bust the dude's nose.

Personally, I thought it was funny that the guy got what was coming, but the smarter part of my brain told me that laughing was a not-so-great idea at the moment.

The guy doubled over, letting me go and holding his face with both hands. I glanced back at Fang and he gave me a look. I guess I wasn't going to play in my next soccer game, because I certainly wasn't going to finishing practice.

We ran back up to the parking lot, climbing into the truck.

"How pissed are they gonna be?" He asked, turning the ignition.

"Pretty pissed," I replied, looking back to see another of the substitutes standing in the doorway of the school, staring after us. "I'm not sure if it'd be a good idea to stick around here for too long,"

"Where else are we going to go?"

I gave him a long look. I was about eighty percent sure we both knew the answer.

"Not-" He glanced at me, "The flock?"

"No shit, Sherlock," I mumbled, sinking into the seat and gluing my eyes to the rear-view mirror. I sighed, "And I was looking forward to the dance,"

"We leaving right away?"

"That'd be the smartest idea," I replied, "Do you want to stop at your place?"

"All I'll really need is food," He said, turning onto the highway in the direction of my aunt's house.

"I'll be sure to get plenty of it. You eat like a freaking cow,"

"Only if cows are cannibals,"

* * *

**Cannibalistic cows. Hm.**

**Review?**

**Anywho, I really hope I'm not going through this too awful fast, but oh well...**

**Review? **

**...**

**Did I mention review?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey all, so I think I'm doing a good job updating. It's been every other day so far... And since today was my last day of school this week I'm planing on getting as much writing in as I can. You guys are spoiled, you know. I've only gotten one review and I'm still keeping up this quick updating. Maybe I should deprive you and see if it gets me any reviews. . . . Nah, I'm not that mean.**

**In case I'm confusing anybody, for the parts that I haven't specified who's point of view I was writing in, it was probably Fang's. Just to put that out there.**

**Dislaimer: I don't think I'm going to put these anymore, you guys know I don't own Maximum Ride, or anything that relates to it, or any other brands or stuff I might put in here, right? Just in case- IF YA RECOGNIZE IT, I CAN BET I DON'T OWN IT. There. Problem solved. I hope.**

* * *

"Fang," Kacey said, looking at me sternly. She was slumped against the passenger door, a backpack under her neck like a pillow.

I glanced at her, not saying anything. I already knew what she was going to ask. Off and on for the past half hour she had been bugging me about letting her drive.

"If you do not pull over and relinquish the steering wheel immediately, you will either pass out from exhaustion and get us into an accident, or I will unleash the wrath of Justin Bieber on you," She set her jaw and one of her eyebrows arched.

I rolled my eyes, "You don't have a license, Kace," I replied, "I don't think so,"

"But," She said, "I have a licensed driver in the vehicle,"

"I'm not twenty-one, though,"

"Technicalities," She waved her hand, "Please?"

Bambi eyes. Again.

"If I do, will you stop that?" I snapped.

"Stop what?" She asked innocently.

"That-" I waved my hand at her and she gave me a questioning look, "That, just," I shook my head and turned onto the shoulder.

She smiled and climbed over me into the driver's seat... Okay...

"Let me know if anything happens," I said. She nodded enthusiastically and looked back before pulling back onto the highway.

It was just past two in the morning. We were about halfway to Arizona, heading to Dr. Martinez's house. Although I wasn't really sure, I didn't have a map for 1, and I tended to not really stick to the speed limit. That was another reason I didn't exactly want Kacey driving. If she drove at her own pace, we could have taken a bus there and not arrived any later. And if she decided to keep my pace... Bad things could happen.

"Be careful," I mumbled, watching out the windshield for a bit before drifting off.

"*"*"

**The Gasman's POV**

"I mean, why is his mane red? And why is he yellow? Shouldn't they be, like, a bit more realistic? It's probably not helping to teach little kids that this is how lions look-" I glanced at Nudge, growing annoyed.

"Nudge," Iggy said, "You're really ruining the experience for the blind kid. I can't hear the movie over your noise,"

She reluctantly stopped talking and leaned back in the seat.

Thank you Iggy.

Nudge had insisted on holding a Lion King marathon while it rained, since you know, it doesn't exactly rain every day in Arizona. Now she insisted on complaining about _Every. Single. Freaking. Detail._

I heard a thud from over in the kitchen. I glanced over to see Max standing in the window, her expression surprised, and slightly pissed. The apple she had just grabbed from the table rolled harmlessly across the wooden flooring.

"What is it, Max?" Nudge asked, "Is somebody here? Who is it?" She flew onto her feet and over to the window as Max rushed out of the front door.

The rest of use exchanged a glance and I got up, quickly followed by the others. When I got to the door I saw Max standing in the open passenger side door of a blue pick-up. She looked ready to whale somebody over the head. The person on that side of the car was a guy with black hair that fell in his face-

Fang.

Ohhhh, he's gonna get his butt kicked.

I walked off the porch, ignoring the downpour and came up to the truck, looking in the crack that opened between the door and the frame when it was opened.

"Hey Gazz," Fang greeted right before Max grabbed the collar of his shirt and yanked him out of the cab, dragging him towards the woods.

"If he doesn't come back, we know what happened," A voice drifted from inside the vehicle. I glanced in farther and saw a girl with brown hair that was pulled back into a messy ponytail and wearing an oversized jacket. She glanced at the house, where the flock was huddled on the barely-sheltered porch either looking after Fang and Max, or at me and the girl in the truck.

She shouldered a backpack and slid over to the open door, landing on the wet gravel with a muted splash and closing the door.

"How about we go inside," She said, looking over my drenched T-shirt. She was about my height, despite the fact she was obviously a few years older.

I ignored her, narrowing my eyes slightly, "Who are you?"

"Kacey," She said, sticking out her hand, "Fang's friend,"

I glanced at her hand before turning and heading back to the house. She stood there a moment before I heard her footsteps follow.

Rude? Yes, but this girl just happened to show up with Fang. about nineteen years too early. Normally, this would be amazing, but first of all, why had Fang dragged a _girl_ here?

"*"*"

**Kacey's POV**

As I headed towards the door most of the flock turned back inside. All except the tall strawberry blond. Iggy? Yeah. That's his name.

He carefully waited until I was through the door before following. I glanced around, uncertainly pulling off my shoes and setting them next to a bunch of others. For a moment nobody talked, then the one with the dark frizzy hair spoke up.

"Who are you?" She asked conversationally, "Are you a friend of Fang's? Where did he get that truck, anyway? Where'd you come from-"

"Nudge, easy on the ears," Iggy warned, going back over to the couch in the living room, where it was playing a part of the Lion King 2.

One of my eyebrows rose slightly, then turned back to Nudge, "I'm Kacey, any yes, I'm Fang's friend. He got the truck from his mom, who's gonna be ticked that he ran off with it," I mumbled, glancing out the window.

"He found his mom?" Nudge asked, her eyes wide and her voice drenched in disbelief.

"Yeah," I replied, "He-" I stopped myself, deciding it wasn't the best time to tell her what else he'd found. How he'd came to the understanding that they didn't have all the flock's information in one place. "Stayed with her for a while," I mended my sentence smoothly.

"That's how you met him, then?" The younger blond girl asked, giving me a stern, pointed look. That must be Angel, the-

Ohhh shiz.

The freaking _mind reader_.

"Yup," I said, regarding her seriously for a moment. _You getting all this, then?_

She shot me a look. That's just great.

I walked awkwardly into the kitchen and put my hands on the back of a chair, leaning forward.

"Are you," Nudge glanced at me, "Close?"

"I guess," I said with a shrug, "But not anything more than friends. He- Wouldn't do that to Max,"

"So you know us?" Iggy asked, staring at the ceiling sightlessly from where he was lounged on the loveseat. That's right, he was blind, wasn't he?

"Yeah," I said, glancing at Angel, "Fang told me,"

_**You are so not off the hook**_, Angel's voice warned.

_Well of course not_, I replied silently.

"Fang just, told you?" Iggy asked, "Doesn't really sound like him,"

I mumbled something under my breath, "What do you think she's doing with him?" I inquired, referring to Max and Fang.

Iggy's eyes flashed in my direction, "Breaking his face, possibly bashing his brains in, and making certain he never has kids,"

Angel glanced at him in surprise, "That was unnecessary, Ig," She squeaked.

He looked back at the ceiling and I realized the two must have spoke internally for a moment before Gazzy slid down the stairs, dressed in dry clothing. He glanced at me, as if he were partially surprised to see me in the house, but ignored me for the most part as he made his way into the living room and launched himself directly onto Iggy.

Ig's breath came out in a quiet gasp and he shoved the Gasman onto the floor, taking several deep breaths, "What the hell, Gaz?" He snapped.

The only response was Gazzy's laughter as he struggled into a sitting position on the floor, right before Iggy shot off the couch pinning the younger boy to the ground with his knee on his back and both arms secured behind him.

Nudge and Angel hardly shot them a glance as the former started fast-forwarding the movie.

"Uncle! Uncle!" Gazzy cried, still trying to contain his laughter. Damn, this was going to be one heck of a stay-

The front door opened behind me and I turned to see Fang come in, Max right after him. Despite the fact his hair hung in his face, I could tell there was a black eye forming. He glanced at me, but didn't say anything, naturally.

Max looked at me for a short moment, as if gauging how threatening I was. To be honest, I was short, weak, and generally fragile-looking. The only real muscle I had was mostly in my legs from all the running I did for soccer. I wasn't surprised when her gaze turned indifferent, probably meaning I passed. She glanced between me and Fang for a moment before pointing weakly at me, "Who- ?"

I held my hand up. This whole repeat-myself-ten-times-for-one-household-of-people thing was going to annoy me quickly. "Kacey," I introduced myself.

"And you are- ?" She prompted.

"A friend," I said.

Max's glare turned to Fang, "Does she, know about- ?" She didn't need to finish for me and Fang to both understand what she meant. _The wings._

Fang clenched his teeth for a moment and he looked up at me momentariy, "Yeah,"

Max's jaw dropped for a moment, "Fang! You-" She stared at him for a moment, "You told her about the- the,"

"It's fine, Max," I said, shooting Fang a sharp look, "No big deal," _Please make sure we are all talking about the same thing._

_**You're all talking about the same thing alright**_, Angel replied. I looked over into the living room to see everyone paying close attention to what was going on.

"No big deal?" Max said breathlessly, "Right," She pressed a hand to her forehead, "I need to talk to mom," She muttered before hustling down a hallway.

The younger kids watched Max retreat down the short corridor and disappear through a door before Nudge jumped to her feet and ran over to Fang, crashing into him and wrapping her arms around him as tears started to fall down her cheeks.

Fang stumbled back half a step before hugging her back, and soon Gazzy and Angel had joined into a bear hug. Iggy slowly got to his feet and walked into the kitchen, leaning on the door frame.

Eventually the younger kids pulled away, sniffling now and then.

"We all missed you, Fang," Angel said, sounding younger than she was.

"Missed you guys too," Fang mumbled back.

I felt like I was intruding on something, but it was either standing out in the pouring rain, or dealing with it. I'd rather take the latter.

Fang and Iggy did one of those man-hug things where they grab hands before hugging.

I sort of withdrew, pulling out the chair and sitting down, deciding that anything they had to say probably wasn't for my ears. The sound of an opening door shook me back and I glanced down the hallway to see Max and another woman coming out. They looked kinda similar, but the lady had slightly darker skin and darker hair.

Her eyes narrowed on Fang instantly, "So you came back?" She asked, a tinge of acid in her voice.

Fang gave a polite nod.

She looked at him for a moment before her eyes settled on me, "You're Kacey?" She asked, her voice only slightly milder.

"Yes, and you're," I paused, thinking, "Dr. Martinez, right?"

"Yes," She gave a terse nod, "Most of the kids call me Val or Dr. M, though," She threw me a weak smile. "I suppose you'll both need rooms to stay in," Dr. M decided, "You'll be staying with Gazzy," She said, looking pointedly at Fang.

"Are you serious? But-" Dr. M silenced Gaz with a sharp look.

"And Kacey can stay in the guest room,"

It was quiet for a short moment before-

"Gaz, if your room smells, you're sleeping on the roof,"

Gazzy's face lit up, "Can I, Dr. M?"

"Absolutely not,"

* * *

**No offence to those of you who like Justin Bieber, I just figured his music wasn't exactly Fang's style.**

**Now, if you review, I just might get in a couple extra chapters over my long weekend. I would also like to hear suggestions of what you guys think the flock could do during the chapters here on out. I have a plot pretty well thought-up, I just want to have some more stuff I could get in here for your entertainment. Any ideas? I wanna hear 'em!**


	5. Chapter 5

**I had part of this already written before I posted the last chapter, so I wrapped it up and decided to post it right away, since I got a couple reviews. See the power that just two reviews can have? And I'm sincerely going to try to respond to all of your guys' reviews, whether it's just to say thanks, reply to a suggestion you gave, or to answer questions you guys might have.**

**It's been raining all day, so I've been writing pretty much _all day. _So I'm trying to put together some ideas for the next chapters -suggestions always help-**

* * *

**Max POV**

I glared at the image that presented itself in the bathroom mirror.

So, Fang had decided to come back?

Coward.

I mean, I was really happy. . . Scratch that thought, I was _beyond_ freaking happy. If I didn't have the control and dignity that I'd built up for myself, I'd probably have squealed with joy and welded myself to that boy.

But we all know that's just not _Max_.

If this whole ordeal taught me anything, it was that the _flock comes first_. Always. Fang would have to deal with second place.

After he left, the flock sort of, broke. I had to stay strong though, and I knew that. I'm not one for tears; you have to know I hardly shed any. But in the year before he left, there were so many stupid things that upset me enough to cry, and the fact I never let out a single tear when my wingman abandoned me was a bit contrary. But it's true.

Fang was-is my best friend. He would only do something that stupid if he had a good reason, and he wouldn't _want_ to be away from me, I knew, so I had to act like it was just a minor hold-up. Thinking anything but would bring me way down, and when I'm the leader of a band of flying mutants, I can't afford to be anything but _up_.

Of course, I'm sure the flock heard me yelling at Dylan every night for about two weeks before he finally took the hint and left, promising that he'd be close by if we got into trouble.

We came back to Mom's, and God was I happy that she renovated. CSM had donated enough to add on to the house so the flock would have permanent shelter. We now had an entire extra floor with four more rooms and another bathroom. Although the rooms were small, they were all we needed. Especially now that Fang came back.

It still sounds weird when that phrase goes through my head.

_Fang came back._

And he brought a girl with him. And he told her about us. And about our wings.

That backstabbing Judas.

I guess she seemed nice enough, but what would incline Fang, of all people, to drag a girl back to us, and spill all of our secrets to her?

I turned away from the mirror in irritation and flicked the light off, walking back to my room.

There was only one way to answer that last question. I just hoped Fang had bought a voice in the year he was gone and wasn't so shy to use it, otherwise I'd have to torture it out of him.

"*"*"

**Kacey POV**

I gave an annoyed sigh and glared at the ceiling of my room. I was exhausted. I'd been without a good night's sleep for a while and after driving several hours in a row, I mostly just wanted to pass out. But I knew karma hated my guts, so I couldn't sleep. I guess this wasn't a surprise, considering I've never been able to sleep in a strange place unless I literally got so tired that it was either lay down and sleep or pass out.

There wasn't a TV in the room, which was what normally got me to sleep, so I decided to go downstairs and try sleeping on the couch or something.

Although Dr. M seemed pretty ticked off at Fang for what he did to Max and the flock, she was a nice person. She wouldn't mind me sleeping in the living room. Why would she?

I walked quietly down the stairs, pulling a quilt along with me in case there weren't any blankets in the living room. I cautiously made my way around to the couch, not really able to see anything since it was practically pitch-black. I went to sit down and the couch _moved_.

I shot back to my feet and whirled around.

"That was my stomach!" Iggy complained quietly.

"I'm sorry!" I said quickly, "I can't see,"

"Oh, really?" He inquired.

"I mean it's really dark," I offered. I still couldn't even see him, so it was a bit odd talking to blackness. Huh, guess I know how he feels.

"I know the feeling," He mumbled, "Why are you down here, anyway?"

"Can't sleep," I said, sinking onto the floor and resting my back against the front of the couch. "You?"

"Eh," He pulled into a sitting position, "That and Fang invaded my room,"

I laughed, careful not to be too loud, "It was that bad?"

"Do not underestimate the power of the Gasman," He replied.

"So," I said, "Could I put in a movie?"

"I don't care," He replied, "Why?"

"Hard to sleep without the TV on," I shrugged.

"Hard to sleep _with_ it on," He shot back softly.

"Well, for you. Where are the DVD's?"

"Under the TV," He responded.

"Oh fun," I muttered, crawling until I felt the edge of the entertainment center and moved upwards until I found the power button to the television and turned it on with a wave of electricity. I squinted my eyes against the sudden light and turned to a cupboard just below the screen. I shuffled through the cases until I found a title I recognized and slipped the disc into the player, grabbing the remote before I went back. I fell back into the half of the couch Iggy wasn't occupying and searched the control until I found the MENU button.

"What movie?" He asked, closing his eyes.

"Twilight," I said, watching his reaction carefully.

He slightly winced, "Nice try, we don't own that one," He said, muttering something about Nudge and... explosives?

"Pirates of the Caribbean," I replied truthfully.

"Good, action," He relaxed into the cushions.

"There is romance in it," I shot back.

"Please tell me that not why you chose it," He begged lightly.

"Nah, I just like the pirates," I said.

"Ninjas are better,"

"You would think that," I rolled my eyes, knowing the effect was wasted.

"I do," He gave a smile.

You know, I think I've been hanging around Fang too much. His smile _surprised_ me. That says something.

"Well I still think pirates kick ass, they prove it in this movie," I said, wanting to see what he would come back with.

He leaned forward, reaching out with one hand. One of my eyebrows arched, a bit confused, then he flicked me in the center of the forehead and I smacked his hand away, scowling at him despite the fact he was blind. "Keep your hands to yourself," I snapped.

He gave me a smirk, "I wanted to see if there was anything in there,"

"What's the verdict?" I inquired, crossing my arms.

He squinted, looking towards the TV as the movie started, "Sounded pretty hollow to me,"

I glared. Well, at least it wasn't Fang calling me a geek or a nerd again. "I wish facial expressions weren't wasted on you," I muttered, "I'm not going to narrate for you whenever I give you the death glare or roll my eyes,"

"Why?" He asked, "Do you do that a lot?"

"Around you," I said, "I might,"

"Ouch," He said with a smile.

I looked at him for a moment, "How do you even know what's going on in the movie, anyway?"

"I make guesses," He said, "Sometimes somebody will tell me,"

"Did anybody depict this one for you yet?" I asked.

"Which one is it?"

"The third one," I said, "The 'At World's End' one,"

"Nope," He said, giving me a look.

I returned the look for a good few seconds, "I could-"

"Aren't you supposed to be sleeping or something?" He inquired.

"Well since I have to share the couch with you, it doesn't seem like much of an option,"

"I could sit in the recliner if you're that tired," He offered.

I rolled my eyes, "Well now I'm not going to get to sleep very easy anyway," I said, "Nonetheless it's weird to sleep around other people,"

"Oh?" He questioned, "How far did you drive?"

"Like, a little over a day," I replied, my eyebrows creasing, not sure what he was getting at.

"So I'm assuming you slept in the truck sometime in there," He said, "Fang was with you,"

"But I know Fang,"

"That hurts," He said, putting a hand over his heart. Well, almost...

"Iggy, your heart is on the other side of your chest," I mumbled, grinning as I held back a laugh.

"I know that!" He snapped, glowering at the TV.

"*"*"

My eyes blinked open and I saw a faint light and an annoying snippet of song was repeating itself. Over. And. Over. And God, did my neck hurt, and my back...

I realized I was sitting up as I rubbed my eyes against the blur of just having woken up. The faint light was from the window, it must have been early in the morning. Only just starting to grow illuminated outside. The music was from the menu screen of the Pirates movie. I glanced around and finally noticed I was leaning into Iggy. I had even been using his shoulder as a pillow... Oh jeez. I shot off the couch and looked back once before going over and ejecting the DVD, putting a stop to the irritating noise.

It didn't mean anything. The... Position we were in. And I was pretty sure we both understood that, but the last thing I needed was Fang making fun of me, or Dr. M getting a bad impression.

I was sure he was awake and just sparing me the embarrassment. I figured that the mere motion of turning my head could have woken him up, since most of the flock were very light sleepers. Except Nudge, but that's another story altogether.

I got to my feet and walked into the kitchen, sighting the bowl of apples and oranges on the dining table I picked an apple off the top and turned it over in my hand.

"I could start breakfast, you know," A voice suggested from the doorway to the living room.

Iggy was leaned against the frame. How he got there so fast and silent was beyond me. I mean, I hadn't had my back turned for half a minute. Nonetheless, the blind guy cooking? I didn't say anything, I'd just look like an idiot if he really could cook, and I couldn't exactly say I was too skeptical.

"Sure," I said, setting the apple back. "You do that. I'll be back in a sec."

He headed for the fridge as I run up the stairs, slipping into my room to get changed and brush through my hair. I tied it back into a loose bun and threw on some jeans and a T-shirt.

It's not like I had much to pick from in the first place. I'd brought a backpack and a duffle bag that held pretty much everything I owned. I had no way of getting my own money, and my aunt only ever bought me things when I _really_ needed them. I remember going four years with a hair brush that lacked a handle. All I had was enough outfits to last me a couple weeks and a few other necessities.

I looked in the full-body mirror that was hung on the wall of my room. The faint, bruise-like swoops that used to permanently underline my eyes were already starting to lighten up, making my dark brown eyes look less dull.

Living with Itex looking over my shoulder all the time had it's toll, but I'd rather be the one heading this operation than somebody who really did plan on destroying the flock.

I pulled back the curtains to the window before heading back out of my room and down the stairs, already able to smell pancakes before I'd fully descended the steps.

"Mmm," I hummed, pulling out a chair and sitting at the table, "So you can cook,"

"What? Thought I was lying?" Iggy asked, propping himself against the counter as he stirred together another batch of batter.

"Eh, had my doubts," I said, "I mean," I paused looking at him.

"I'm blind? Yeah," He finished with a grin, "Never stopped me before,"

"That's why I didn't comment when you offered to cook," I replied, as Angel came down the stairs. Her hair was a mess and she was still wearing mismatched pink pajamas. She actually looked like she was eight, just like she was supposed to.

She glanced at me and gave me a sweet smile, hearing my thoughts. "Pancakes?" She asked, looking at the stove, "Could you make chocolate chip ones, too?" So she did have a little kid side. She wasn't just about making sure I spill my guts over how I found out about the flock.

"Sure thing," Iggy said, setting down the bowl of batter and searching a cupboard, pulling out a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and pouring a decent amount into the batter.

Angel sat across from me, scratching at the table's surface absently. She looked up at me for a moment, until she was sure she caught my eye and flashed a pointed glance at Iggy.

Please don't tell me she was getting at what I thought she was, "Angel-"

She lifted her head and looked at me with expectance and innocence. A faint smile crept onto her lips.

That little devil.

She flashed me a grin and Max shuffled into the kitchen, pulling out a chair and slouching with her head on her arms.

"Mornin' Max," Angel greeted cheerily.

Max gave a half-groan half-grunt.

"Rise and shine," I added, sounding bright and happy.

Her head lifted so she could just barely glare at me, "Bite me," She grumbled.

"Somebody doesn't like mornings," I chided, leaning back in my chair with a smirk. Iggy shot me a you-have-no-freaking-idea look before he took the first set of pancakes off the pan and on a plate, sliding it onto the table.

Angel took it as a cue to grab a short stack of plates from a cupboard, setting them on the table before going back for forks, butter, and syrup.

"Thank you, Angel," I said politely, she gave me a smile and took the entire plate of pancakes for herself.

Of course. The generosity wasn't going to last. And that was like, seven pretty nice-sized pancakes. Jeez, when they mentioned that these kids eat, they meant these kids _eat_. Maybe it isn't just Fang and his teenage guy-ness that made him a pig.

I glanced around, cataloging the layout of the house and saw a door that went into the backyard. It had a dog flap on it and I thought for a minute. A dog?

"Hey," I said, "Where's Total, anyway?"

"He switches back and forth from staying around Akila with CSM and coming back here," Angel explained, drenching her pancakes with half the bottle of syrup.

"Wish he'd just stay with Akila," Max muttered.

"Max!" Angel said, looking hurt, "But I love Total,"

"And that's the only reason he's still allowed to come back here," Max explained, sitting up as Iggy brought another plate of pancakes over. She grabbed the plate and pulled it to her, but with a glance at me she took another plate from the stack and slid it to me, dropping a single pancake on it.

"Thanks," I said with a pointed glance at Angel, who had her eyes closed and was savoring her breakfast. I rolled my eyes.

"But," Max said, pouring a more reasonable amount of syrup on her pancakes, "We still have Magnolia. She mostly stays outside, though. At night she goes and stays with Ella, but Ella's at a sleepover, so-" She broke off, setting in on her food.

"*"*"

After breakfast most of the flock decided to go for a fly, leaving only me, Fang, and Max in the house. How we ended up as the last ones was beyond me. Well except for why I was still here, since you know, I don't have wings and all.

After the rest had filed out the door I stood up and stretched. Not only could Iggy cook, but he was pretty dang good at it, too. The most complex thing I'd ever made was spaghetti. Cook the noodles, heat up a jar of Prego and you've got it.

"Getting cozy last night, were we, Kace?" Fang taunted from the living room.

... What? How could- Huh?

I gave him a look, "Don't even start, Fang," I warned, heading into the living room. I fell down onto the couch. "It wasn't anything," Of course, he didn't listen.

"Don't start what?" He asked, his eyes following me.

"You know what," I shot back, looking at the TV.

"I believe you're mistaken, I haven't a clue what you're talking about," He said.

"Then just drop it,"

"Alright," He said and I almost let out a sigh. _Almost_. "So are you staying in Iggy's room tonight?"

"Fang!" I said, pushing off from the couch and running after him. He immediately shot for the stairs. As he was about halfway up I caught his foot, successfully tripping him.

I heard a satisfying thud as his chin slammed onto the landing of the second floor. "My jaw," He groaned, getting into a sitting position. He rubbed his chin, glaring at me.

"I told you not to," I said simply, retreating to the living room.

"What the heck was that?" Max asked from the hallway, walking out with her arms crossed.

"Fang's stupidity," I replied, jumping over the back of the couch.

"That's a relief. I thought we'd never get that fixed," She smirked, glancing at Fang, who was still sitting on the steps. He turned his glare on her.

"Don't look at me like that," She said with a smile before turning and following me into the living room.

I heard the front door open and a girl who -no doubt- was Ella walked in with a duffel bag over her shoulder.

"Omigod," She said, pulling off her shoes and her bag fell off her shoulder, "Where's Nudge? I seriously need to talk to her," She pulled her bag back into her arms and turned to look into the living room. She froze for a second, looking at me funny, "Who are you?"

Max glanced at Fang and Ella caught the exchange, finally seeing Fang. He jaw dropped, "How did you get here?"

"I drove," He replied, pulling his hand away from his jaw.

Ella glanced out the window, "That's your truck?"

He nodded.

"Who's she?" Ella looked back into the living room, looking shocked and confused.

"A friend of Fang's apparently," Max replied, "Kacey,"

The younger girl's eyebrows creased, and she mumbled something before shuffling down the hallway.

* * *

**If anybody's out of character, please tell me. I will love you forever! . . . Okay... That's a bit weird, so maybe not...**

**I was listening to the song Goodbye by Kristinia Debarge while I wrote the bit in Max's perspective. Not only did I decide the song had the capability to get annoying fast, but that it kinda gave me an idea of how to portray Max's reaction to Fang leaving. Any opinions about that?**

**Review pleaseee?**


	6. Chapter 6

**I was hoping I'd have this up yesterday, but I hit a bit of a writer's block. Although, I've even got an idea for the next chapter, so you can expect chapter seven before Monday. . . . Unless my computer crashes or something... I hope I'm not jinxing this. **

**Anyway, happy belated Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it, and a happy November 25 to everyone else ^^ **

* * *

**Max POV**

"What are you getting, Nudge?" I asked, glancing at the computer screen in front of her.

"Max, really, they've got it under all sorts of passwords and locks and anti-hacking stuff," She frowned, her fingers flitting across the keyboard with insane speed.

It had been a while since Fang had showed up. In that time, we'd had very little action whatsoever. The most dramatic event was me finding Iggy's bomb stash under his bed when I dumped Fang onto the floor for the first day of school. I'd ordered Ig to get rid of the stuff. To my knowledge, he had complied.

Just recently, though, there had been a bomb threat at school. The place had been "cleared", but the flock was a little uneasy about it. I had also found a note in my locker, all that was written on it was "Dr. Hayden". What the heck was that supposed to mean?

I could've sworn Fang had gone even paler when I showed it to him, but he didn't say anything. I felt like he was keeping something from me, and my patience was growing pretty thin. One more unanswered question and I was going to have to interrogate him.

So now I had Nudge looking up Dr. Hayden. We'd gotten a couple links to something for CSM, but that was about all we'd been able to come up with. Apparently this doctor person was a highly secret case, and practically nonexistent.

"I'm going to have miiigraaaiineeeesssss," Nudge drawled under her breath, closing her eyes.

"Would rather have migraines from this, or some scientist picking at your brains with a spork?" I suggested and she went back to work.

"Not a nice mental image, Max," She grumbled.

I heard a door slam upstairs and in a moment Fang came down the staircase, his hands in his pockets. He came up next to me, looking at what used to be his laptop, and was now Nudge's headquarters for hacking.

"Still looking up Dr. Hayden?" He asked.

"Yeah," Nudge sighed.

He shot me a sidelong glance, "Can I talk to you?" He inquired quietly.

Fang? Wanting to talk? "Sure," I said, turning towards him.

"Alone?"

I nodded, heading towards the back door. He held it open for me and we walked into the trees a little ways from the house before I spoke up, "So what's this about?"

"I thought you should know something," He began, "But I don't think you should tell the rest of the flock,"

"Fang, what are you talking about?" I asked, shooting him a look.

"Kacey," He replied, "Why I brought her back,"

I clenched my jaw, this was another subject he'd been avoiding, "Go on,"

"She knew who I was when I was staying with my mom," He said, "She accidentally called me Fang instead of Nick and she told me Itex had been trying to brainwash her or something. She said she didn't fall for it and this Dr. Hayden gave her information about CSM and us. Itex apparently informed her on everything about us that they could and she insisted they let her go on a kind of field mission to get into our lives until we trusted her and try to kill us somehow,"

"Jesus, Fang. I think that was the most you've ever said at once,"

"Probably,"

"So you're saying she's a spy for Itex?" I said, surprised by how well I was controlling my reaction.

"Yeah, but I honestly don't think she's on their side," He murmured.

"That's _exactly_ what she _wants you to think_, Fang," I pointed out.

"Max, I'm serious,"

"And I'm serious, too," I said, "And I absolutely cannot believe you kept this from me," I stopped, whirling on him.

He halted as well, closing his eyes and bowing his head, as if he had been expecting this, but also hoping I'd have given a different reaction.

What? Did he think I'd be peachy fine with an enemy agent living with me and my family?

"Fang, can't you see how this could affect the flock?" I hissed, "What if that bomb threat was from her? What if they hadn't detected it and we all died?"

"But Max," He objected, "There is no way she could be in any sort of contact with them, and I can bet that if she tried to make a freaking bomb Iggy would have noticed,"

"Aren't you supposed to be the suspicious one?" I snapped, "Why are you so blind to this?"

"Maybe you're too over suspicious because she's a girl I brought back with me,"

"Are you calling me jealous?"

"S'not like it hasn't happened before,"

I turned to walk away, but he caught my wrist. I yanked back but- Jeez he'd gotten strong.

"I'm sorry, Max, but could you just trust me a little here?" He asked, letting go of me, "Not tell the flock?"

I glared at him, "She does one thing and the whole flock knows," I warned.

"You know," He said, "She was the one who told me to tell you,"

"You weren't going to tell me?" I asked, getting upset all over again.

"I was kinda, hesitant, because I knew you'd be pissed off, but she said you were the leader and you deserved to know,'"

"Right," I muttered, turning back towards the house, "Now before they start wondering what happened to us..."

I took a few steps in the direction of home, but I realized Fang wasn't following, "What?" I asked, looking back at him.

"I thought maybe we could go for a fly," He said, shooting me a crooked grin.

"*"*"

**Kacey POV**

I descended the stairs, glancing into the living room to see Nudge typing away at a computer. I hoped Fang had gotten the drift and was out explaining to Max why I was here. I also hoped that she'd let me stay, not that I would blame her if she kicked me out. Who was I to be here anyway? Particularly when I'd spent years visiting that Itex plant?

"Hey Nudge," I greeted, walking over and leaning on the back of the couch behind her.

"Hi," She mumbled, squinting at the screen, "You know, Max has me looking up this Dr. Haystack person and I've found pretty much nothing and so far that doesn't show any signs of changing. Then her and Fang ran off to do who knows what and she just left me here and I'm getting headaches," She took a breath, glaring at the keyboard.

My eyebrows arched, "Well," I said, coming around and sitting next to her. I opened my mouth to continue, but a loud noise came from outside.

"What was that?" Nudge asked, pushing the laptop away and heading to the window, "It sounded like thunder- Oh my gosh,"

I got to my feet and ran over to look. There was what looked to be a mushroom cloud forming over a part of the trees, maybe a mile/three-quarters of a mile away.

"Oh Lord," I whispered, seeing two specks coming closer and landing not far from the house. Max and Fang.

Max ran inside first, Fang not far behind. "Iggy!" She yelled. Ig materialized at the top of the steps and came down.

"Was that what I think it was?" He asked, jerking his chin slightly in the direction of the blast.

"Yes," Max snapped, "What did you do with all the bomb stuff you had before?"

"You think that was my fault?" He said indignantly, "Me and Gazzy took care of all of that stuff when you told us to. There wasn't anything left,"

"I just wanted to make sure it wasn't-" She shook her head, her hands on her hips.

"Does that mean it was Itex or somebody?" Nudge inquired.

"Probably," Max muttered.

"I'd like to check out the place where it went off," Iggy commented.

"Yeah, that'd be nice, but if it was Itex, then that means they have been there, and are probably still there in some way, shape or form," Max shot back.

"You guys could send me," I suggested, "I'm expendable,"

Fang glowered at me.

"We're trying to save the human race, Kacey, it wouldn't make much sense to start sending people into the crossfire," Iggy reasoned, earning an odd look from Max.

"But I'm a _willing_ person," I added meekly.

"No, Kacey," Fang warned and I reluctantly retired my case.

"Are we going to stick around here?" Gazzy asked, sitting at the top of the stairs, Angel standing quietly behind him.

"I don't-" Max looked at Fang, "I don't think it's a good idea if we have explosions going on."

"But it's nice here, Max," Angel put her two cents in.

"I know, Ange, I know," Max said, "But if it's not safe-"

"That's the first thing that's happened in months!" The Gasman said, "Can we just stay until something else comes up?"

"We know to be more cautious," Iggy remarked.

"What did you guys see out there?" I inquired. That was bugging me, since I knew it was possible that they could have somehow triggered the explosion.

"Nothing," Max replied, "All of a sudden it just blew up about a quarter mile from us and we came straight back here,"

"The worst it could have been was a message, and since it looks like nobody here was hurt-" And idea hit me, "Turn on the TV!" I demanded.

Nudge scooped up the remote and pressed the power button and began switching through the channels, already on my thought process. She stopped when the screen switched to an overhead view of a forest that looked like- Well, like it had been bombed.

"_-Are no leads as to what could have caused the blast, and there have been no reports of injuries inflicted by this. Officials are-"_

"Right," Iggy said, "So nobody was hurt,"

"Next time they try to get our attention, someone will probably be hurt," Gazzy muttered.

"There's no guarantee of that," I objected, looking up at Gazz.

"We'll stay-" Max said slowly, "For a month at most, or until something else happens," She looked at everyone, "Whether it's just another note somewhere, or if they blow up another acre of trees,"

* * *

**Alrighty, there's chapter six. I only looked over it once, compared to my normal two times of proof reading, so if I made a mistake I apologize. **

**Review? I'll count them as presents, since my birthday is on Monday :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Alrighty, I said I'd get this chapter to you before Monday, and look-e here :) **

**I don't know how many times I rewrote this chapter. I had the idea for the beginning, but the end never satisfied me. I was planning on using the idea for the ending later in the story, but...**

* * *

"You've _got_ to be kidding me," I muttered, staring at Fang. I knew it was his idea, despite the fact Max was orchestrating it. I think the main reasons she had agreed to the suggestion was because she wanted to see if Itex had trained me at all physically. The other reason was because if they hadn't trained me (which, they didn't), I'd be the entertainment for the day. I had a feeling that anything amusing that came at my expense was welcome in her schedule.

"If you're going to be hanging around us, you need to be able to defend yourself," Max insisted.

"But you're talking about defending myself against people who are way, way stronger than me," I objected, "No matter _what_ you guys plan on teaching me I'm not going to stand a chance,"

"And you're small, fast, and flexible," Max argued; Fang giving me a look that meant I wasn't getting out of this, "All those other people have is pretty much brawn,"

"They're not really people, most of them," Iggy added. I glanced over to see him sitting on the steps of the back deck. Great. I was going to have an audience to see(and hear?) me make a total fool of myself.

"You're right, they're just kids," I said, thinking of Erasers, "Younger than us,"

"You can't go thinking that, Kacey," Max said, "They've been programmed to kill and obey since before they had a chance to be kids,"

"That's even sadder," I remarked.

Max set her jaw and glared at me. I guess it was just these sort of things that made her doubt me.

"I'm sorry I'm such a sympathetic sap, Max," I put my hands up in surrender, "I'll make an effort."

This seemed to satiate her a bit. "Can you throw a punch?" She asked.

"Maybe," I replied, "I dunno,"

"You've never hit anybody, I'm sure," She muttered.

"In third grade I punched this kid in the stomach when he kicked me in the shin," I tried. She gave me a look.

"Fang," She called.

"You're not going to make me the punching bag, are you?" He asked hopefully.

She arched an eyebrow at him and he reluctantly walked over by me, crossing his arms and looking down at me threateningly.

"I don't want to punch Fang!" I protested.

"Too bad, he deserves it anyway," I saw him recoil slightly from the corner of my eye.

I glanced back at him.

"How about you pretend he was that kid kicking you?" She offered.

I smirked. Fang; a little kid kicking people in the shins. I sent my fist at his gut, but I knew it was a weak effort. Within a second I found myself in a headlock.

"Fang, you jerk!" I said, prying at his arm, "Lemme go!"

"Fang, we're supposed to be teaching her something, not irritating her," Max chided, putting a hand on her hip, and pressing the other to her forehead.

He released me, an amused, smug look on his face, "He thinks it's funny," I accused.

"Guilty," He murmured.

I narrowed my eyes at him, but he just looked expectantly at Max.

She gave him a stern look, "Can we continue without anymore interruptions?"

"Yes Ma'am," Fang smiled at her sweetly and she fought back a smile of her own.

After a good three hours of blood, sweat, and tears - okay, so the only blood was from a few scrapes I managed to give myself and the tears were replaced by Max, Iggy, and even Fang laughing at me - we went back inside; Iggy taunting me about binding my wounds.

"I can't help that I've never really had to physically protect myself," I mumbled.

"Obviously," Ig rolled his eyes.

"At least I know where one of my most vital organs is," I said, smacking him in the chest, right over his heart.

"I was sleep-deprived, give me a break," He objected.

"Mhmm, yeah, sure," I agreed dryly, nodding, "Excuse me, but I need to find a first aid kit," I added with the same sarcasm.

"You do that," He said with an innocent smile, "Would you like help bandaging your injuries?"

"No, I think I can manage it myself," I replied, heading up the steps. As I ascended the stairs I heard Max comment that Iggy and I bicker like old ladies. I rolled my eyes and went into the bathroom. I'd managed to draw blood on one of my knees and the heel of my right hand, but I'd also scraped my other knee.

Let's say I had balance issues. I get hit and I'm sprawled on the ground. Sad, huh?

I heard a loud pop from downstairs and I quickly cleaned up my cuts and scrapes before running down the steps. I nearly choked on the smoke. It wreaked like burnt popcorn.

"Max! How did you screw up popcorn?" Iggy demanded.

"It wasn't me!" She objected.

"I was hardly gone for a minute," I said, giving a cough, waving my hand through the smoke, "And I come back to this," The kitchen was pretty well fogged with the stuff, and within a few minutes the whole house would smell like a charred, salted, buttered corncob.

"Oops," Gazzy whispered meekly.

"Gazzy?" Iggy inquired, "How'd you- ?"

"It was still popping!" The Gasman said defensively.

Now, if you haven't noticed, I'm not telling you what this looked like. Yeah, that's because I couldn't see a yard ahead of me.

"Well I'm sure it's done now," Max replied, "So is the microwave,"

That's when the fire alarms decided to start in.

"Turn the frickers off!" Iggy demanded.

"Right on it, Your Majesty," I called over the beeping and buzzing.

Eventually we managed to disassemble all of the smoke detectors and open all of the windows, clearing out the smoke.

Max whirled on Gazzy, "No. More. Popcorn. Without. Supervision." She drawled, glowering at him.

"Got it," He mumbled, developing a sudden interest in the wooden boards on the deck. We'd resorted to the backyard, the smell inside of the house was horrible. I was sure Dr. M wouldn't be happy when she got back from work. Of course we never knew when that'd be; her hours always varied, depending on what sort of crisis was on the schedule for the day. A cat hit by a car, a dog with a twisted gut...

"God," Ella said, her face scrunching up, "It even smells bad out here,"

"We're going to have to get a new microwave," Angel remarked.

"And more popcorn," Nudge added sadly.

"And a crapload of air fresheners and Febreze," Iggy muttered.

"Crybabies," Gazzy muttered, earning several objections.

"Let's look on the bright side," I said, "Now-"

"Kace," Fang cut in, "Admit, there's no bright side,"

"Maybe not to you," I replied, "Mr. Doom-And-Gloom,"

"No, I really don't think there's much of a bright side," Iggy agreed.

"Gosh, you guys really kill the vibe," I got to my feet, "Do we have anything to do? Like maybe a kickball, or soccerball-"

Something snapped somewhere in the woods. I spun to face the noise and the flock went silent- namely, Nudge.

Another snap. Max started towards the trees, "Who's there?"

I heard a faint sound, which I assumed the rest of the flock could decipher, probably as whispering, before a red-headed girl stepped out from behind a tree, dressed in what appeared to be a school uniform, she pulled a guy behind her. Their looks were very contrasting. They were both medium height, but that's where the similarities ended. She seemed to be a bit younger than me with very pale, colorless skin and short light auburn hair. Her cheekbones and nose were dusted with freckles and her eyes were a bright green. He, on the other hand, was probably a year or two older than Max. He had skin slightly darker than Nudge's and black hair that was cropped short. His eyes were a pale, dark blue and he was wearing jeans and a jacket with the hood pulled up.

Max held her ground, looking at them expectantly.

"Hi," The redhead said with a tone that was a bit impatient and only somewhat friendly. She elbowed the guy in the ribs.

He was giving Fang a speculative look, "Are you that kid with the blog?"

* * *

**Oh noes, who are they? **

**Review? Just take a couple seconds to type something out, no matter how trivial you think it is. Please?**


	8. Chapter 8

**Okay, I've been super busy, and that will likely continue for the rest of this week. So I probably won't get the next chapter up until Sunday, or maybe Saturday night. **

**I lent out my copy of _Saving The World and Other Extreme Sports_ so I don't have access to the first blog posts in order to get all the right information. Just as a heads-up in case I mention stuff from the blog that is incorrect. **

* * *

**Max POV**

"Who wants to know?" Fang asked, regarding them with a look that was scarily close to a glare.

"Told you he was Fang," The guy mumbled to the girl. I narrowed my eyes. If these two were going to come into my vicinity, they were going to have to get to explaining before I kicked their behinds back to wherever they came from.

"Quit with the 'I told you so' crap," She snapped back quietly, "It's annoying,"

He rolled his eyes and shifted his gaze to me, "I'm Skiter," He said, "This is Sydney,"

I was quiet for a moment. Names were a bit trivial, considering they don't exactly give anything away about the person, "And who exactly are you?"

"People like you?" Skiter tried, "Or mostly, I guess," He glanced at the ground, seeming to debate something for a moment before he tugged his jacket off and a set of wings extended slightly.

And no, they weren't bird wings either, which creeped me out even further. They were _bat_ wings. Like all skin-like and... Well, you know what a bat wing looks like, right? If you don't just Google Image it.

"Jesus," Ella said, "They never stop surprising you, do they?"

"We saw that message from Fang and decided to come looking for you. We stuck around here for a while," He explained, "To be sure it was you guys. We were pretty certain when we saw you two flying around," He glanced between me and Fang.

"You were here when that explosion happened, then?" I asked. If nothing else, maybe they could help piece together what had blown up- and who was behind the threat.

"It was his fault!" Sydney said, her hand flying up and pointing at Skiter, almost whapping him in the face in the process.

"I didn't plant the thing!" He hissed back, smacking her hand out of the way, "I saw the trip wire, so I set it off. It wasn't my bomb," He reasoned, giving me a look that begged me to believe him.

By now though, I'd learned not to trust anyone who hadn't proven themselves, time and time again. I gave him a slightly doubtfull look.

"And you got out of the area in time?" Iggy asked skeptically.

"Flew like bats outta hell," Skiter answered with an amused smile as he pulled the jacket back on. He glanced back up at us, "You're Max, then, right?" He nodded at me.

I narrowed my eyes, but managed to get out a reply of assent that wasn't particularly harsh.

"And you're Fang, and," He gave Kacey an odd look, "You're not Nudge,"

"Nope," Nudge spoke up, "That'd be me-"

"I'm Kacey," She put in before The Nudge Channel could get too worked up, "Fang's friend, I guess,"

Skiter nodded, looking around at everyone else. Sydney had been generally silent and glanced at everyone without word or looked absently at the ground, as if she were deep in thought.

I kept thinking Skiter had something about him that made you feel like you were talking to a computer rather than a person. A computer that tried to fit in, nonetheless. He seemed to gauge you every second, constantly calculating, although it created the impression that it was mostly subconscious. He came off as sincere, but I couldn't help but doubt him. The girl, Sydney, appeared cautious and easily irritated, but quiet. Plus, she was a redhead. And I had grown pretty biased against redheads. All because of a certain Tall, Dark, and Silent standing at my side.

I shot Fang a sidelong glance. I didn't really want to bring the bat-kids into the house. I mean, can you blame me? Either way, you know how suspicious I am. If they want I might let them sleep on the roof...

"Fang?" I whispered.

"I thought you didn't trust my judgment," He murmured back, turning his head to look at me, "Maybe you should ask the flock for a majority,"

I pursed my lips. I guess he was right, in a way. If he had said to send them away, I would have, but if he had asked for them to stay, I would have immediately decided he was going soft, considering Kacey into the equation.

I looked back at the others. None of them seemed too worried. And with the mind reader completely at ease, I figured it couldn't be too terrible. Sleeping arrangements could be sorted later. I hoped I wasn't royally screwing things up.

* * *

**Kacey POV**

I opened the closet, pulling out a stack of blankets and a pillow. While the majority of the flock sat at the table in the kitchen and interrogated Skiter and Sydney, I had volunteered to pull out some bedding for the bat kids. It had taken some intense reassuring on Angel's part to convince Max they meant no harm, and to allow them to stay.

Apparently they had been in the School as well, but their experiments hadn't been as successful. Sydney was the only one that had been grafted before birth that had survived, and Skiter had originally been tested to improve learning and memory abilities before he was about five and they pretty much tore apart all of his DNA to add in the bat genetics. He said it was awful and painful, lasting more than a month before the hurting stopped and his wings had grown out to the size they should have been for his age. They had escaped thanks to his super-smarts and had managed to sustain themselves until they heard about Fang.

As I turned around I nearly ran into somebody who had been behind me. I took a step back, only to find that when I turned, my foot had gotten looped with the vacuum's cord and I fell back against the shelves, pain shooting up my spine from the impact.

"Ow," I mumbled, finally able to see who the person was.

"Did I scare you?" Iggy asked, trying to keep back a smirk.

"God, you're almost as silent as Fang," I muttered, "Tie bells around your ankles so we always know where you are,"

"That would be little more than demeaning and slightly embarrassing until we have to deal with Itex spies sneaking into the house or Erasers attacking, when stealth is kind of important," He pointed out, "Want some help?"

I slipped my foot out of the cords and pushed the pile of blankets and pillows into his hands, turning back around and grabbing the last pillow. I decided that any extra bedding Dr. M had was probably on the beds now, so there wasn't much else I could do. I walked back down the hallway and into the living room, tossing my pillow onto the couch. I turned to Iggy who had unceremoniously dropped his stack onto the floor before sitting back inthe recliner.

"An awful lot of help you are," I remarked, disassembling the couch so I could set up the pull-out bed.

He gave me an angelic smile. I rolled my eyes and turned back to the couch.

Suddenly I felt something big and soft slam into the back of my head. I turned around to see a pillow at my feet and Iggy grinning at me mischievously. How he managed to throw it with that much precision was beyond me. I smirked, picking up the pillow and flung it back at him as he chucked the other pillow at me. I decided to end the problem where it started, grabbing the pillow he had in his hand and trying to pull it away from him.

That was a bad idea from the start, as I'm sure you all know what happened. The pillow ripped, spewing white feathers _everywhere_. I mean, who buys feather pillows anymore? I don't think I'd ever seen another one in my life.

"Oops..." I whispered, blowing a bit of down out of my face. Iggy busted out laughing.

"That... was... a _very... _smart idea," He said breathlessly.

"Shut up. You're the one who kept pulling on it," I hissed quietly, sticking my tongue out.

"That's what she said!"

"Immature!" I shot back, whapping him in the head with the pillow that was still intact.

"What the," I heard Gazzy from the kitchen and looked over to see him at the end of the table, looking into the living room with a shocked, slightly confused look on his face.

He was the only one who could see directly into the living room, because of the way the house was set up. There was an arch that connected the living room to the kitchen, but it was kinda in a corner, making it hard to see very much of one room from the other.

By now, though, half of the flock had gotten up to look. Max appeared to be caught between laughing and being upset.

"How bad is it?" Iggy breathed.

"Well," I glanced around, "It looks like a pillow factory blew up," I murmured back.

"We can add pillows to the list of things we need to buy for Dr. M," Nudge piped up, "Good thing Christmas is in a couple weeks,"

Max shot her a look, but didn't say anything, shaking her head instead.

I pointed at Iggy, knowing he'd have no way of retaliating, being blind and all. Aren't I just the nicest person, picking on the blind kid?

"She's implying it was my fault, isn't she?" Iggy blinked, looking towards the others.

I crossed my arms, shooting him a look, "It _was_ your fault,"

He just shrugged, walking out of the room. And he was just going to let me clean up this, wasn't he? Of course he was.

* * *

**Review? Pretty please with one of Max's favorite cookies on top?**


	9. Chapter 9

**So I didn't get this up when I said I would... I just started a huge school project that eats up my evenings like no other, so I tried to get in as much as I could until Christmas break, which is here! And now I've got this done, and I'm hoping I can prioritize better and not go AWOL on you all again. I might not have as much time to write as I like, but I'll try not to refrain from the long disappearances. **

**I've been listening to a lot of songs from the Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron soundtrack. They're really good songs, in case anybody hasn't heard them. I highly recommend You Can't Take Me, Get Off My Back, and Sound The Bugle. (: **

**Also, the first part of this chapter came to me after watching Mythbusters for five hours. So if the thumb incident seems familiar...**

* * *

**Max POV**

I glanced at Nudge warily. Earlier that morning I had heard her and Angel talking about convincing me to take them shopping when I had walked past their room. Now I was waiting for one of them to speak up.

I'm Maximum Ride- I kick butt for a living, but when it comes to the more feminine aspects of life, such as shopping... No. Just- no.

There was supposed to be a meteor shower sometime that night, and Angel and Nudge had decided they wanted to go to the top of a hill not far from the house. I'd reluctantly agreed, mostly hoping that by doing so, the two girls would lay off the shopping idea. They had even dragged Fang there too, which partially annoyed me because I had a pretty good guess as to why. But also, I was glad Fang was even with the flock in the first place, and if I had to come out here with those two, he could suffer with me.

Fang shot me a pointed look, urging me to relax. "It's starting," He remarked quietly and Nudge's rant about trees turned to an excited commentary about the subject at hand.

I leaned against his shoulder right before something hit the back of my head. "Ow," I mumbled, turning around and looking for the culprit. All I found, though, was a bit of plaster, in the shape of a thumb. I held it up for Fang to see and he arched an eyebrow, "A plaster thumb," I remarked, "I'd better check this out. Watch them," I added a bit more quietly before getting to my feet and weaving through a few trees in the direction the projectile had come from. As I approached the house I could hear a faint argument.

"Well, that's obviously not how it's supposed to work," Gazzy announced bitterly.

"It would have helped if you hadn't used air pressure to power it," Skiter shot back.

"Guys, we've got it partially correct, it won't take much to get it fully operational," Iggy disagreed, "But sitting around and blaming each other isn't getting this thing built,"

"Gaz," Skiter said, apparently listening to Iggy's suggestion, "Can you attach the other molds while I fix the backfiring problem? Ig, you could start increasing PSI right away,"

I reached the edge of the trees to see the three of them working away at a robot that had plaster hands and a matching head. I was about to ask them what in God's good name they were planning on using that thing for, but I decided I probably didn't want to know.

"Why did I just get hit in the head with a finger?" I demanded, holding up the artificial thumb.

They all whirled to stare at me. "Uh-"

"Because this thing malfunctioned," Skiter replied. Gazzy and Iggy both shot him a look that was both a warning to stop there, and a look of blame.

"And what is _this thing_?" I asked.

"A robot," Iggy said, and I could almost see the gears turning in his head, "That can carry heavy objects. Good for moving furniture and stuff,"

I could see how this could possibly be true, but I knew better, "Iggy," I prompted.

"No, really," He insisted, pulling out a universal remote, "See," He clicked a button and the hands lowered, rose, then spread apart. Suddenly, they shot back together. The hands shattered from the impact and I dodged the remnants of a palm.

"Well, there's still a few bugs," Iggy mumbled.

"Which I could have fixed before you wasted another set of our molds," Skiter muttered.

"The air pressure was getting too high!" Iggy objected.

"I suppose it's better than explosives," I said under my breath, then added so they could hear, "Try to keep the projectiles to a minimum, Mom already had to replace four windows in the past month,"

"Will do, Max," Skiter said, nodding as he rearranged some brightly colored wires in the robot's back.

**"*"*"**

"Please, Max," Nudge begged, her hands clamped together in front of her, excessively using Bambi eyes.

"Nudge," I groaned, using my arm as a pillow on the table.

"Christmas is next week, we need to go shopping _sometime_. Val said she'd take us if you agreed," She insisted, "I know you're not going to let us go without you or Fang or Iggy, and we both know those two will _never_ go shopping, so that just leaves you." She thrust her hands onto her hips, "Please, please, _please_, Max?"

I pursed my lips and scratched absently at the table's surface, "Fine," I sighed.

Nudge squealed and ran upstairs, "Angel! Ella! She said yes!" She proclaimed, as if I'd agreed to marry somebody.

Of course, that analogy made me think of Fang, and I decided not to go down that road, knowing that if I compared a marriage proposal to Fang, a certain little mind-reader would be after me about it. I got to my feet, deciding to head upstairs and get changed out of my pajamas and into some day clothes because I knew Nudge would never let me outside like this. I caught sight of a couple figures outside and I stopped to look, but it was only Iggy and Kacey.

I'd given him the job of trying to teach her a few simple fighting moves. He hadn't exactly looked too awfully happy about it, but he didn't object too much.

At the moment, she was on her butt, looking at him loathingly as he gave her a mocking expression. For a second I wondered if he was too immature to expect anything productive from him. I pushed the thought away. I had other, more disturbing things to worry about.

After I had changed, Mom drove us to a mall, where Ella, Nudge, and Angel ogled at everything we walked past, particularly things that sparkled or had pictures of movie stars or music artists printed on them. We stopped in a few stores, in a couple of which the girls shooed me out just as soon as I'd stepped over the threshold, complaining that I couldn't watch them buy my Christmas present.

As we walked back towards the doors we'd come in a lady from one of the booths in the center locked eyes on Nudge. "You won't believe the quality of these hair straighteners!" She announced, "Just come over here and have a seat-"

I was about to decline her offer on Nudge's behalf, but Nudge had other ideas. She nodded enthusiastically and followed the lady to a bar stool.

The lady smiled and touched Nudge's shoulder. If it hadn't been for my enhanced eyesight, I would've never noticed. Where the lady had touched Nudge's arm, there was a tiny little chip. It looked almost like a small sequin or sparkle, but I wasn't that stupid.

I saw Angel glance at me from the corner of my eye and I knew she noticed it too. Effectively interrupting the lady's plastic grin, I grabbed Nudge's wrist and pulled her towards the exit.

"Max!" She objected, "What are you- ?" She gave me a strange look as I pinched the little chip off her shirt, holding it out on my finger so she could see. "Is that- ? Ohmigosh, th-" I shot her a look and she shut her mouth as I transferred the tiny device onto a wall.

"I don't think we can stay much longer," I warned as we climbed into the car.

"But Christmas is in six days!" Angel complained, looking horrified.

"It obviously isn't safe, Angel!" I shot back, "You saw the chip,"

"Just six days!" She repeated persistently.

"I don't know, Ange," I snapped, then muttered, "I need to talk to Fang,"

**"*"*"**

"Maybe we could just stay until Christmas day," He offered, "You know what it means to them,"

"Fang," I said, giving him a look, "You know how dangerous-"

"I'm very aware of how dangerous it is, Max," He said, looking back at me seriously, "Not even an entire week more, and none of us have school, there's another vet taking over Dr. M's job over the holidays, nobody has to go anywhere,"

I got to my feet and paced. I had been rather certain Fang would've agreed that it wasn't safe to stay here, but obviously, I thought wrong.

He leaned back against my headboard and watched me.

"Are you going soft or something?" I accused.

He blinked in surprise, "What?"

"First you're making friends with the enemy, now you're making decisions against the flock's safety, but for their enjoyment-"

He closed his eyes and I let my words drift away. "If you don't want to take my advice," He said calmly, opening his eyes again, "Then don't. I'm just telling you what I think. I know we've stretched our stay already, and so what harm would a couple more days have? And don't go listing the possibilities for me, because if we've had so many days without need for alarm, what are the chances we'd get nasty luck in the next week? If we're not safe here, what promise is there that we'll be any safer elsewhere?" He looked at me for a moment and I stared back, a bit struck by how much he was speaking, "Hm?"

I finally found my voice again, "I hate it when you use logic against me," I muttered.

He shot me a half smile and stood, patting my head like a dog before turning to walk out.

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	10. Chapter 10

**Hey ya'll (: I typed this all up tonight, and I've already started on the next chapter, so I'm on a roll and let's hope it stays that way! I'm also in a very good mood because I just got a new iPod, but who cares about that, anyway? So here's chapter 10, and I hope you enjoy it. It's a bit short, but like I said, I've got a decent amount of headway on the next chapter.**

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_**Max POV**_

I glanced over my shoulder and into the kitchen after hearing a loud splat. Skiter peeled a washcloth from his face and flung it back at Gazzy, who dodged out of the line of fire and reached for the bucket of soap water.

"No!" I interjected, "Clean up the mess you've got,"

Looking shot down, Gazzy located his rag and set back to work.

The three pyro-technologists had somehow rigged the robot (which they conveniently named Fred. The same name the Gasman had used for the tapeworm he had claimed he had last August) to work as a server for Christmas dinner, but when they tested it out it bespattered the room with mashed potatoes and gravy. Mom was _not _impressed. She'd immediately set them to work on scrubbing the entire kitchen until it was spotless.

I had to remind myself that a malfunctioning robot was probably better than anything that was explosive. Especially if Skiter was on the crew.

I'd noticed that he was _insanely_ good with numbers and anything with wires, chips, or hard drives. Not in the way Nudge could hack into anything, or in the way Iggy could make a bomb out of the most harmless objects, but where he could probably make a computer by himself. It was a bit intimidating, to be honest. I was fairly certain that if I didn't keep those three under my thumb we'd end up with a weapon of mass destruction hidden under somebody's bed.

"We should be fixing Fred so he's ready for tomorrow," Iggy muttered.

"_Fred_," Nudge remarked, "Was a bad idea from the start,"

Iggy gasped, "You better hope he didn't hear that. He'll be after you next,"

"Iggy," I said, "Robots can't hear, you know that," I glanced back to see the appalled look on his face, "Cut the act, you'll just scare Angel,"

He rolled his eyes and went back to washing the table.

"When'd we get maids?" Sydney deadpanned, coming down the stairs. "Please tell me they're not getting paid for the crummy job they're doing," She allowed a smirk.

"Like to see you do better!" Gazzy shot at her, sticking out his tongue.

"No, they brought the robot inside and it went volatile on the potatoes," Nudge mumbled from where she was flipping through a magazine on the floor.

"His name is Fred!" Iggy called.

"It's a robot, Iggy!" She snapped back.

"So? He still has feelings," He retorted.

"We get it," Sydney added in irritation, silencing them as she went over and sat next to Nudge.

Her, Nudge, and Ella had pretty much been handcuffed to each other over the past week. They were almost worse than the girls at school with their fashion-oriented minds.

"Ugh," Came Gazzy's voice from in the kitchen, "I'm not cleaning under the fridge,"

"You heard Dr. M," Skiter said, a smile in his voice, "_Spotless_,"

"Can we use the garden hose?" Gaz asked hopefully.

"_Absolutely not_!" Mom exclaimed.

"***"*"**

"Iggy, you are not using that infernal contraption to set the table," Mom called as she pulled a stack of plates from the cupboard.

"Fred is fully operational," Gazzy insisted.

"I swear he won't maul the turkey!" Iggy put his two cents in.

Kacey plucked the remote out of Iggy's hands and smacked him in the arm with it, "We don't need another accident," She set the controller down on an end table in the living room.

"Whipped," Skiter remarked under his breath. Iggy's face flushed and he hit the older guy upside the head. "Abuse!" Skiter accused.

"What-?" I looked between them.

"Oh, nothing," Skiter said with an innocent smile and a glance at Kacey, who crossed the room and continued placing silverware on the table.

"That's just not the case, Ski," She replied calmly.

"Isn't it?" He grinned at her and she scowled back.

"It's Christmas," Mom stated, sitting down once everything was set up, "Can we get along?"

It was a tight fit with everybody at the table, but it was a decent-sized piece of furniture, so all was good.

"Just fine," I said agreeably.

Nudge gave a contemptuous snort. There was a muted thump and she gave a slight yelp. "Who just kicked me?" She demanded, but nobody responded since most of the people at the table were already filling their plates.

"***"*"**

I glanced over at Mom and Ella, both of whom were standing in the back door of the house. We'd kept goodbyes short, since I'd convinced them the extended flock would be back soon. Kacey sat on the steps of the deck, looking a bit detached. I knew she was bummed out about not being able to come along, and I didn't really feel very comfortable about leaving her with my mother and sister, but we didn't have much else of a choice. She'd promised that she'd leave immediately if things started happening, but I didn't have much trust for her to begin with.

My plan was relatively simple. Fang had told me about the issue with the Itex facilities, how they kept our information and explained to me that it was more complicated than just having our info in different buildings.

"They had three different files for me," He'd said, "And I've found two for Nudge and one for Gazzy and Angel. I don't think we should tell them until we're certain,"

"Well," I replied, "How did you figure out which file was the correct one for you?"

"I looked it up online," He said, "Searching for old newspaper articles and hospital records,"

Since then, we'd eliminated Angel and Gazzy's lead, and narrowed down Nudge's to one we were pretty sure was right. Of course, we'd already found Iggy, Fang, and my parents, so only theirs were left, not including Skiter or Sydney. Neither of the later seemed to care more or less.

"A scene from a Halloween movie, eh?" Sydney said with a witty smile as she snapped out her leathery wings and stretched them.

"Certainly," Nudge said somewhat grudgingly. She was still a little touchy about the whole bird-freaks never-really-going-to-fit-in thing.

"You two are the vampires then," Gazzy bared his teeth towards Skiter and Sydney.

Skiter rolled his eyes at him.

"Chicago?" Fang asked quietly, looking at me. I nodded. Chicago was where one of the facilities were that he hadn't searched yet. "Be a hell of a lot easier with all of us,"

"More dangerous, too," Kacey piped up, "It could be fatal for all of you to be together like this, but there's-"

"That other one," Fang said, casting her a look through narrowed eyes.

"Dylan?" I inquired.

"He'll be watching over you all," Kacey said, "But still, be careful and make sure no one gets caught,"

"We're not about to hand anybody over, Kace," Fang muttered.

"If anyone gets caught," She insisted, giving him an unconvinced look, "They will likely be tortured for information," The look on her face read that that wasn't the worst they could manage, but she wasn't about to put those thoughts to words. "My best luck to you all," She said, looking slightly absent again.

Fang gave her a respectful parting nod. Nudge ran to the door and hugged Ella once more, there were a few more "Bye,"s and "See ya later,"s and waves, then we all took to the air, me in lead and Fang as my right-wing man.

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**I can't stress enough how much your guys's reviews mean to me. No matter what you type, I'll be thrilled to read it. Particularly your opinions on my writing or about how I'm portraying the characters. _Anything_. **

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	11. Chapter 11

**Yada! I told you I had headway, and now it's here (: **

**I am really wondering, is FanFiction acting up for anybody else? I'd like to know.**

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_**Kacey POV**_

I moved my bishop a couple squares over and looked back at Ella, who stared at the board for a moment, then looked up at me with a helplessly confused look on her face.

I'd talked her into a game of chess. At first she seemed to understand, but now it was getting a bit sad.

"Are you tired of playing?" I asked.

"Uh," She shrugged, then nodded.

I sighed, "Figures," I started putting the pieces into a bag and she turned, flipping on the TV.

The doorbell chimed and I got up to answer it. I pulled open the door and there was a blond teenage guy standing on the landing of the front porch. He seemed a bit familiar, so I decided to excuse the normal polite greetings, "Who are you?"

He narrowed his eyes at me, "More like who are _you_," He said.

I looked over at Ella and saw that she was craning to see who it was. "Jesus!" She gaped when she finally recognized him, her eyes were wide and she nearly fell off the couch in her haste to get to the door.

"Actually, it's just me," The guy replied calmly, "Uncanny resemblance, huh?"

"Max told you not to come back," Ella exclaimed in accusation, folding her arms and taking a spot at my side.

"Well Max isn't here anymore, is she?" He hissed back.

"Wait," I interjected, "_Who_ are you?" Although, by now I could've guessed.

"That's _Dylan_," Ella said his name as if it were the filthiest rumor she'd ever heard. And that girl hears a _lot_ of rumors.

Dylan made a face at her and she glowered back.

"Alrighty," I cut in, grabbing his arm and pulling him inside, closing the front door. Ella looked appalled.

"You let it inside," She gasped.

"Ella," I cautioned, then turned to the visitor, "What's it, Dylan?"

"Where are they going? All of them together?" He demanded.

"They're going to a facility to check for files on the flock," I replied patiently, shooting Ella a look when she opened her mouth, probably to make a shocked statement about me giving information to the devil's spawn. To be honest, I didn't see exactly why she despised him so much. Maybe it was a my-sister-hates-him-so-I-should-too thing. Of course I was clueless on anything sibling-related.

"They can't all be going," Dylan looked at me, with expecting and hopefulness.

I pursed my lips, "They should be safe as long as you're not after them," I said.

"_Should_?" His eyebrows rose, "That doesn't mean anything, they could be going to their death,"

"What's the likeliness of that when Itex knows you could still bust them?"

"Still pretty high, if you ask me,"

"Who says I'm asking you?" I snapped.

He set his jaw, "Who are you anyway?" He inquired, "How do you know so much?"

"I'm Kacey," I stated, "And I know this because Itex told me. I've been with the flock for a while now,"

"Oh, and they just left you behind too?" His tone held a bit of contempt.

"Well of course," I remarked, "I can't fly,"

He looked me over, "But then what did Itex do to you?"

"My wings just haven't grown in yet, I suppose,"

He made a contemptuous sound and rolled his eyes, then seemed to sober up, "What do you suppose should be the course of action?"

* * *

_**Max POV**_

"High security, much?" Nudge mumbled, leaning forward on her branch.

"Well, they've got documents in there that I'm pretty sure are illegal," Skiter said, "They have to have it under lock and key,"

"Many locks," Gazzy remarked, "Few keys,"

"You guys, we got what we came for, that's the biggest issue," I said.

We'd finally infiltrated the Chicago facility after almost two weeks of watching and planning. It'd run pretty smooth, but there were a few more guards than we had expected. Although, the security was mostly set up for human raids, not superhuman bird kids that were already experienced in evading capture. Now, we had a file for Gazzy and a file for Skiter, the latter of which had promptly given the folder to Iggy to set on fire. He had described it as a win-win. He didn't have to deal with the dramatic torment of it all, and Iggy got to exercise his pyromania. Of course, that second bit didn't exactly thrill me, but I guess it wasn't hurting anything. Nonetheless, it put a temporary stop to what seemed to be a conflict between them. I wasn't sure what it was about, but it seemed to annoy the hell out of Iggy- which Skiter found rather amusing.

Before Gaz could get even the slightest glimpse of what was printed in his file, Fang had taken it away. Gazzy wasn't particularly happy, but after Fang explained that it could be a dud, he seemed to understand it was for his own good (keyword: _seemed_).

And now we were camping out in a forest somewhere in what I thought was Indiana.

"I think the next closest one is in Detroit," Fang said, coming back into view from his invisible state.

"Where?" Sydney asked, swinging her arm off the side of the branch she was laying across.

"Below a warehouse, I think," He said.

"Not the sewer again," Nudge said, looking horrified.

"We'll have to see," He gave a faint smirk.

"Alright," I commented conclusively, "We'll head to Detroit tomorrow,"

"When are we going back, Max?" Angel asked.

"Back where?" I inquired, settling into Fang's arms.

"At your Mom's," She said, looking down.

This was a question I was dreading, but I couldn't deny that I was surprised they had kept quiet about the issue for this long. "I don't know, Ange," I sighed, "I don't know if it's a good idea to go back too soon.

Her expression was a little downtrodden, but she retired her case, getting as comfortable as she could in the tree.

It was quiet for sometime while everyone started to drop off into sleep. Me on first watch. I heard a groan from over by Iggy's tree.

"I'm starving," He grumbled.

"Too bad," I whispered back, "It's back to possums and spam cooked over a fire,"

There was a short, thoughtful silence, "Didn't Dr. M give you some money?"

"Yes, but that might have to last us a while, Ig," I replied quietly.

"That's rough," He mumbled under his breath and went mute, asleep.

"***"*"**

"Gazzy, put the gun down," I ordered.

"But _Max_," He whined, looking at me pleadingly.

"_Get rid of it_," I enunciated, "We probably already look like a gang of suspicious hobos,"

Sydney gave an audacious snort, "Not all of us. Skiter, certainly, but-"

"What are you, then?" Skiter replied coolly, "A homeless schoolgirl?"

She glowered at him as we walked down the sidewalk, in some warehouse district in Detroit. Fang was looking at the structures as we passed them, looking for any sign that it was an Itex building.

I'd sent Gazzy, Skiter, and Nudge out to get food and they had returned a while ago. Apparently Gaz had lifted a paintball gun somewhere along the way. Just what I need. A hyperactive ten-year-old with a splat-producing weapon.

He argues that it could be useful.

"It's not ethical to steal, Gazzy," I chided.

"Maybe not," He said, "But what if we have better use for it?"

"It's still not right to steal,"

"_Maaax_," Gaz complained.

"N-" I began but stopped short when Fang suddenly halted.

"I think we're here," He said.

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**Now, I'm really hoping for some reviews from you guys. If you would, please.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Alright, so I know nearly nothing about explosions or large cities, so you'll have to bear with me on this one. This chapter is a bit longer than the last couple, so I hope it makes up for some things. **

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_**Kacey POV**_

"Dylan!" I said urgently, grabbing his wrist and pulling him next to me. I pointed towards a warehouse a few blocks away.

"Finally," He remarked, sitting down on the ledge of the roof and letting his legs dangle off the side of the building.

"You think it's one of the facilities?" I asked, watching as eight tall figures filed into the building.

A little over twenty-four hours ago, we'd put the infamous Plan B into action and come to Detroit, using Dylan's odd ability to guess what was going to happen as a guide. And with that, we'd been roaming around the roofs of the town, trying to find the flock.

Of course, the main fuel behind Plan B was me somehow getting wings. And... Well, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the couple weeks it took for the wings to grow in, painfully. I had decided that I understood why Skiter never said much more about his wings growing other than that it was excruciating. Of course, he hadn't had access to painkillers, and that only helped somewhat.

"Wouldn't doubt it," Dylan replied, "They're too smart to walk into the wrong building,"

"You don't think we're too close," I inquired, looking faintly concerned as the warehouse door swung shut.

"Would Itex risk destroying this whole area, and any people in it?" He countered.

"I don't even know, Dylan," I sighed reluctantly, "They're sadistic people,"

"Obviously," He mumbled, "The past two and a half weeks are proof,"

I fought back a wince. "We just going to w-"I began, right before the warehouse the flock had just disappeared into emitted a loud noise, somewhat like a bang, and began to implode on itself in a giant cloud of dust.

I immediately felt my insides go numb and my jaw went slack. I made as if to slip off the side of the building or stand up, but Dylan caught my arm, "It won't do any good, Kace," He said through his teeth indignantly, closing his eyes.

"We have to do something," I objected, wrenching out of his grasp, "They can't die, Dylan,"

"Any living thing can die," He shot back opening his eyes and giving me a look.

"No," I said, "I'm supposed to keep them alive!"

"I don't think they're dead," Said Dylan slowly.

"I don't care whether you're clairvoyant," I snapped, looking slightly horrified. "Did you not just see the building cave?"

"I did, but they probably got out-" He started, but was quickly cut off.

"You've got no proof, we need to-"

"We can't go over there, Kacey, and you know that," He drawled impatiently, "Getting us all together is like a death sentence,"

I set my jaw, then felt a flash of recognition, "That's what it was! A ploy! They set that off thinking we'd go to the rescue, then they'd blow us and any survivors to smithereens,"

"Morbid, but probably true," He agreed, "But the flock aren't dumb, and Iggy can detect explosives faster than a trained bomb dog,"

I felt a bit less distressed, but still not entirely convinced. "What if you stay here and I go scout it out?"

"Once the dust clears we'll be able to see, Kacey," He stated, squinting at the cloud that was already beginning to disperse.

Suddenly, the sounds of sirens came into range and began to grow louder.

"Well, that's not good," Dylan muttered.

"We don't want to be seen," I agreed, slipping back onto the actual roof and looking around the sky. If they found a couple of teenagers hanging around a building that just blew up... I'm sure you can guess how that would blow over with the cops. "So long as there's no helicopters, we should be able to hunker down here and not be seen,"

"Hunker?" He remarked mockingly, then promptly brushed it off, slipping back over the ledge and sitting down on the tar-like roof, his back against the concrete ledge.

I kneeled next to him, facing the warehouse and keeping my eyes just over the edge so I had a clear view.

I didn't particularly like Dylan, but I didn't exactly dislike him either. He tended to get on my nerves a lot, and he never mentioned anything about himself. It almost annoyed me, but I suppose the less he talked, the better, anyway. It was only when we'd thought up and decided on the course of action that we ever really talked to each other. I had assumed that he still felt upset that Max had sent him away. From what I understood, he also had it in for Fang. I had refrained from making any snide comments about him being jealous or lovesick. I decided I needed him on my side if I had to hang around the guy for God knows how long.

It also spurred the thought of him being Max's "perfect other half". Now, I'd always thought Fang was the only other Max could have. And please tell me how anyone, even the smartest scientist that ever lived, could possibly alter someone's thoughts or emotions to make them someone's "perfect other half". I thought it was crap. For what I knew, Dylan was probably just _told_ he was Max's other half. And he was gullible to believe it. Or maybe he actually did love her, but I was rather certain Max didn't return those sentiments. At least not outwardly.

I'd asked him about the whole deal once and he just pretended he couldn't understand me. Even if he was only two-three years old, he was smarter than that. Moron.

"Targets spotted," I murmured, seeing a cluster of spots in the sky, slowly getting smaller, "They've left,"

"Headed where?" Dylan asked as the sirens closed in, probably only a couple blocks away.

"East," I replied, "Should we follow?"

He was quiet for a moment, "Yeah," He got to his feet, "Let's try not to be obvious about it, though,"

"Hey," I said, looking up at him, "Police," I hissed, glancing in the direction of the alarms.

"We better get moving, then," He said, extending his wings, "S'not like they haven't seen birdkids before,"

I reluctantly got to my feet, "I hope they don't go far," I muttered, referring to the flock.

"Wings still sore?" He inquired, right before launching into the air, using the ledge as leverage.

I took a deep breath and snapped out my wings, a bit slower than I would have liked, and tried to ignore the stiffness and slight pain that encompassed my wingspan. I honestly wasn't sure if I even should have been flying yet, considering that I was fairly certain my wings weren't at full-size. But I was sick of sitting around with nothing but Dylan's predictions to assure me that the flock was still alive. I was supposed to keep them alive, or die trying.

A little melodramatic, eh? Well, I had to make up for humoring the enemy somehow, and earn Max's trust. And, if the rest of the flock found out about my double-agent business, to make it up to them as well. So far, only Max and Fang were fully aware of my story, and probably Angel as well, since she could you know, _read minds_ and all.

I came up to Dylan's side, trying to stretch as many muscles in my wings as I could while flying, hoping it would loosen the stiffness. I could only barely make out the little specks that were the flock.

"What if they spot us?" I asked.

"We have to book it back out of there," He said, "Max might be able to catch up, but so long as we don't stray too close, that should be fine. We just can't have all of us together,"

"Do you suppose Itex is watching us?" I inquired, "How else would they know? If they didn't know we were all together, and know where we were, then it wouldn't be any harm to us,"

"I'm sure they're tracing us somehow," He replied, "By what means, I know as little as you do,"

I tried to remember back to when I was in the Itex building. There seemed to be very little that I actually could recollect, which struck me as odd. I suppose they wouldn't send me away with any information that could be used against them, to begin with.

"I guess Max had a chip in her arm a while ago," He remarked, hoping this would hit a memory.

A chip? I looked over my forearms, seeing nothing irregular that I couldn't explain. A few scars from my klutzy childhood and that was about it.

"It's scary knowing someone has that much power," I commented, "And that they haven't been caught by any officials,"

**"*****"*"**

We'd landed a little ways from where the flock had set up camp for the night. It wasn't far from the city, but I was still surprised they hadn't seen two other dots that seemed to follow them, hovering just over the horizon. We couldn't watch and wait to see when the flock got up and where they headed without risking being seen, so now we would just have to rely on luck, and guessing.

We were trying not to be spotted by the flock. And that was Dylan's idea, but I couldn't help but think of how much easier it would be if the flock was aware of us tailing them. Then we wouldn't have to worry about being seen, and we could use some way to converse about plans and such. But, as usual, it was the _hard_ way that things would have to be done.

Dylan had fallen asleep not too long ago, but I couldn't seem to get any closer to sleep than a drowsy stupor. Fruitlessly, I tried to come up with some reason or explanation or any sort of hint about what could possibly be going on in Itex. Certainly they wanted to stop us- or more accurately, the flock. I had near nothing to do with it. But how could they go about it? I mean, without alerting authorities. Unless, of course, the authorities were in on it, which I didn't doubt that there could be a few that were.

And what about the other experiments? That was something else that bothered me. I was aware that there had to be more out there, maybe not of the winged sort, but others that would be useful to the cause. Like Skiter and his superbrains, before he got winged.

I didn't realize I was scratching at the tree, snapping bits of twigs and bark off with quiet, muted sounds. I quickly ceased the subconscious action and focused my eyes on the trees ahead of me, not sure whether I should still try to get some sleep or give up the effort and attempt to do something productive. Then I saw a dark figure approaching slowly through the trees.

I stayed still for a long time, and didn't notice that I was holding my breath. Finally I could make out who it was, "Iggy?" I demanded quietly in disbelief.

"Kacey?" He replied with the same tone.

"How did you- What are you doing?" I asked.

"I should be asking you the same thing," He remarked.

"I asked first," I pointed out, sitting up slowly.

"I heard talking coming from here earlier, so I told Max I was going to check it out," He said unsurely, "And you?"

_Oh God. Please don't ask that question._ "Uh," I gave the intelligent response, "It's- complicated,"

"I'm good with complicated," He slipped his hands into his pockets and looked up towards me patiently.

"Not," I said, pretty much just stalling, "Like this,"

"Oh?"

"You can't-" I started.

"Who were you talking to?" He interjected quietly, not fazed.

"Um," For a sort moment I debated whether I should say I was talking to myself or otherwise make something up.

"I can tell there's someone else here right now, Kace," He warned, "I might be blind but I'm not ignorant,"

"I never believed you to be," I said quietly, looking over my shoulder at Dylan's figure.

He waited for a second, "Who is it?"

"Dylan," I mumbled.

His expression turned either surprised or quizzical- which one, I couldn't tell in the lack of lighting.

"What's he doing around here?" Iggy asked.

"Making sure that nothing bad happens," I said, although I knew that was only most of the reason.

"And how'd you get here?"

_Another bad question... I'm going to sound even more like the bad guy by tomorrow-_"That's a long story, I can't really-" I started, but he was giving me a look and I found it hard not to feel guilty. I wasn't trying to do anything wrong, but if I said the truth, how could I know he wouldn't tell the rest of the flock? None of them would trust me, but it was already too little, too late for me to be able to change any of that.

I took a breath, "You should just go back to the flock," I said, closing my eyes so I couldn't see the distrusting, blameful look I imagined him giving me, but that only made it show up on the back of my eyelids. "I can't give you answers right now,"

"Mmm," He hummed, "Of course you can't,"

"Of course," I muttered under my breath.

"Fine," Said Iggy, "But I know you're following us now,"

"Yes," I agreed, "Please don't tell the flock, only bad things can happen if you do,"

"It'd be easier if you just told me what was going on," He tempted.

"You don't know what you're saying," I replied.

He gave a weak, wry smile, "Sure I don't,"

He turned to walk away, but I leaned forward, ready to slip off the branch. _Screw it._ "Send Max back," I said.

He looked back and faced me, "Max?"

"Yes, send her back,"

"So _she_ knows," He prompted.

"Max knows everything,"

"Then if you won't tell me," He said, "Then you can at least tell me _why_ I can't know,"

"You'd have no confidence in me if you knew,"

* * *

**Rather dramatic, wasn't it? **

**Review?**


	13. Chapter 13

**I would have liked to have gotten this done for Sunday, but I just couldn't find any time to get it written until Monday, so it's a couple days late. **

**I've been hitting a lot of brick walls lately, and for the sake of keeping what few brain cells I have, I ask you guys to give me ideas for chapter-long mini-plots. Just little tidbits that I could write (:**

* * *

_**Max POV**_

I stared at Iggy, "You are trying to tell me that Kacey and Dylan are tented in the woods not even half a mile from here?" I demanded.

"Yes," He replied, "That's exactly what I'm saying,"

"And Kacey wants to speak with me?"

"Mhmm," He yawned.

I was not really looking forward to leaving the flock to talk to Kacey. First of all, leaving the flock was something I did not want to do. And no matter how reasonably logically she explained things, I couldn't help but doubt Kacey.

"Wake Fang up," I said, "Tell him what's going on, okay?" I received a nod from Iggy right before I turned and headed through the trees in the direction he had come from. It wasn't that hard to find them, since once I was a few yards away from the flock's camp I heard talking. If Kacey and Dylan had been that close, I wasn't surprised Iggy had heard them. It was a bit odd that they had chosen to tent up just at the right distance, where the flock couldn't hear them, but the blind kid could with his extra-super hearing.

"You'd better have a plan," I heard a voice that I pinned as a drowsy Dylan, "Because that wasn't a very smart move,"

"What harm could it do," Kacey said, "Either way, Max has a right to know. It is-"

"She's coming," Dylan interrupted.

"Don't be such a drama queen, Dylan," Kacey shot back and within moments I could see them, perched up in two large trees.

Kacey turned towards me, giving me a half-hearted smile in greeting that evaporated quickly when I did little more than stare at her.

"Hey Max," Dylan addressed me somewhat meekly.

"Why are you two here?" I asked, crossing my arms in a no-nonsense fashion.

"To keep tabs on the flock," Kacey replied.

Dylan shot her a look, "To make sure nothing goes wrong,"

"Right," I said, "Just like Kacey mentioned. That you'd be watching over us or whatever. But you-" I eyed Kacey, "How are you part of it?"

"Just after you guys left-" Kacey began, looking a bit uncomfortable, "I grew a couple more appendages. . . .Wings," She broke off, not looking all too thrilled.

_Oh right, just after we left. What an odd coincidence. _

"But nothing's happened," She added, "Your mom and Ella are perfectly fine to my best knowledge," She gave a weak, partially hopeful smile.

I suppose I'd rather have her away from my family, anyway, just in case she started drawing unwanted attention to them.

"So you just want to tail us for the trip?" I asked.

"Pretty much," Kacey said casually at the same time Dylan replied with an "I suppose,"

"Is that alright, Max?" Kacey inquired timidly. "I wanted you to know, so that you could keep us somewhat informed. We'll keep a safe distance at all costs,"

"You're not even out of the hearing range of the blind birdkid, and you're suggesting that you'll stay back," I remarked.

"It's difficult when we don't know where you guys land," Dylan objected.

"Fine. You guys can follow us," I decided, "So long as you and your magic spit keep your distance," I glared pointedly at Dylan, who rolled his eyes theatrically. "Skiter said that the facilities in the area will probably be jacking up the security since we broke into the last two places, so we're taking a detour to Miami. Hopefully they won't be expecting it,"

"I doubt they will," Dylan nodded in agreement

"We'll let you know when we're going tomorrow, then," I cast them each a look before turning and heading through the trees.

"Goodnight, Max!" Kacey called.

******"*****"*"**

_**Kacey POV**_

"You biffed it that time," Dylan remarked.

"Shut up!" I snapped, combing my fingers through my hair, pulling out litter from the forest floor and the offending tree.

Just when I thought my flying was almost up to par, I had to run into a flipping tree. I swear the thing just jumped in front of me.

"Get off your ass, we're losing them," Dylan called from the top of the tree, where he was standing on one of the branches, keeping an eye on the flock.

"I'm working on it!" I shot back, getting to my feet, "Just go, I'll follow you," I offered.

"As you wish," He said mockingly and fell out of the tree, catching air under his wings and tearing off, southbound.

I exhaled and began ascending the tree, knowing I'd never get through the tree tops by air. Once I'd reached as far up in the tree as I'd willingly go, I could just see Dylan, gliding almost leisurely a little over a football-field length away. I launched into the air, spreading my wings.

I had a pretty good idea what avian species was melded with my DNA. A type of bird that was beyond common where I grew up- the Red-Tailed Hawk. Of course, there wasn't much that was special about the bird. It was mostly just a product of conversation whenever anyone spotted a large bird in the sky or perched on a fence, but I did think it's wing markings were reasonably pretty, so I was content.

I soared up beside Dylan, who shot me an artful glance, "Maybe it'd help you to get a radar, you know, so you don't miss any more runaway trees,"

"Haha, you're hilarious," I said, snidely adding, "Moron,"

"It looks like they're stopping up here," He said, ignoring my jab and looking ahead.

"Are we in Florida already?" I asked in disbelief.

"I think so, actually," He replied, swooping low to the trees and landing in a sort of clearing about half of a mile back from where the flock had disappeared.

My feet thudded loudly on the ground compared to his silent arrival. He gave me a slightly disapproving look.

"You are never going on any type of stealth run," He muttered.

"Will you stop with the witticisms," I hissed, "I may be a bit off, but I know how to incapacitate you,"

"Let's see it," He said provokingly.

I went to kick him where it counts, but he caught my foot and raised it above his head, sending me onto my back. My breath left me and pain shot through my wings, which were already sore and easily irritated. I could've sworn I heard a couple cracks. I gave a pained groan and slowly sat up, "Someday I'm going to kick your ass and you'll be sorry,"

He crossed his arms and looked down at me, "We'll see about that,"

"Hey, guys!" Sydney's voice drifted from the woods. She came up to our clearing, taking on a quizzical look when she saw me sitting on the ground with my arms clutched around my torso, "What happened?"

"Space Monkey over there just threw me onto my back," I snapped.

"You were asking for it, Bubbles," Dylan remarked.

I got to my feet and brushed myself off as Sydney shook her head and spoke, "Angel saw a sort of manhole thing in the ground with the Itex logo on it, so we're going to check that out- or I should say _they_ are going to check it out," She corrected herself, "I'm supposed to stick with you guys for a while,"

"Why?" I asked, stretching out my wings and deciding they were still operable.

"Max said something about evening out the groups and not having such a large infiltration team breaking into the facilities," Sydney said, but her reasonable expression flashed with a slight tinge of unbelieving, "_I _think it's just because I'm not much help and I'm not part of the flock,"

"Max has a lot to deal with, Sidd," I said, "And what she told you does make sense-"

"How much do you want to bet she won't send anybody else away, though?" Sydney interjected, looking a bit deflated.

I regarded her somewhat sternly, "The flock is Max's family, you can't expect her to cast them off." I said, "She doesn't trust me enough to put them under my supervision, anyway,"

"That's pretty sad," Dylan commented, "Considering you're more of a danger to yourself than anyone else,"

"Dylan!" I reproached, glaring at him.

"Admit it, Bubbles," He gave me a sincere but light look, "You know it's true,"

"That is _not_ my nickname," I muttered.

"Whatever you say," He grinned, "Bubbles,"

"***"*"**

_**Max POV**_

I crouched next to the circular metal cover of the manhole ( Go ahead, laugh. I know all of you immature people out there are having a hard time taking me seriously. ) Angel had spotted as we flew over.

It was eating away at me, why on earth did Itex think it needed to have an entrance in the middle of the woods? Just poking up out of the ground? Sketchy? Very.

I managed to pry the cover off and peer down into the void. From the light that shown into it, I could see the bottom. Well, to put it simply, Nudge was _not_ going to be happy.

"It's a- sewer," Gazzy said under his breath, trying to look down into the hole.

"I'm not sure if it's a sewer, per se," I disagreed, "It's dry,"

"An underground tunnel?" Nudge inquired, "Like how those old hospitals and asylums used to use for their workers and stuff so that they didn't have to go outside to get to different buildings? That is so weird. I wonder why they have tunnels. What if it co-"

Angel slapped a hand over her mouth.

"Bad time to be ranting, Nudge," Skiter said quietly, then looked at me, standing on the other side of the hole, "Who goes first?"

"Me, of course," I mumbled before throwing my legs over the ledge and testing the ladder's bars before descending. I looked around for a moment, but it was pitch black, the only light was coming from the round opening the flock was slowly filing through. I reached over and pulled a flashlight out of the pocket of Skiter's backpack, not bothering to ask permission. I flicked it on and shone it down one side of the tunnel, then back the other. The tunnel was completely bare, and it was strangely quiet, every little thing echoed. I heard a soft grating sound and the light from above diminished halfway as Fang slid the cover partially on.

"Now what?" Iggy whispered. Although his voice was very quiet, it seemed to resound twice as loud.

"Keep going in the direction towards Miami, I s'pose," I replied, trying to be even quieter.

"At least there isn't anybody down here," Angel said, "At least I don't think there is..." She frowned, probably testing her telepathy.

"Just let us know when that changes, Ange," I said and she nodded.

We continued in the tunnel, heading south, doing our best not to sound like a pack of uncoordinated, harmoniously-challenged water buffalo. That was very difficult, of course. Iggy, however, seemed slightly elevated that the tunnel navigated in a straight line and he didn't have any trouble walking without guidance, although there were several instances I thought he was going to hit his head on the relatively low ceiling.

Nudge appeared to be having severe difficulties refraining from speaking, because she often opened her mouth and made a slightly strangled sound before promptly snapping her mouth shut again.

Finally, something in the tunnel changed. There was a door ahead, and once we reached it Fang pointed at the Itex insignia before trying at the handle, which was locked. No surprise there. Skiter came forward and had the lock picked in less than half a minute.

I stepped inside the door, facing black once again. I lifted the flashlight and saw that we were in a type of hallway, several doors lined the opposite wall. One end of the corridor ended with a wall, but the other seemed to end with a door to a stairwell. I scanned the walls and ceiling quickly for video cameras before heading towards the door closest to the dead-end. I turned the knob and the door swung open reluctantly on long-ungreased hinges.

Following the precedent, it was dark, but I managed to find a light switch nestled next to the doorway, flicking it on and illuminating a room full of filing cabinets. The only thing other than filers was a small work desk.

"That was easy," I heard Nudge remark quietly behind me.

Iggy pulled a John Wayne, adding "Too easy,"

Soon we'd all taken different cabinets, sifting through several papers that held little more than code-like number and letter sequences. I knew the flock was growing frustrated about an hour into our search, and Iggy had given up listening to Gazzy reading the lines off for him and taken up a guard position at the door, making a gun with his hands and holding it in front of his face threateningly. From the way Skiter read his sequences, you'd think he was reading a cliff's-edge action novel. That kid was starting to creep me out.

Suddenly I heard a loud crunch and a clatter.

"Ew," Nudge said, "Ugh, that's just- that's gross,"

I looked over my shoulder. Apparently Gazzy had thought it would be productive in some way to take the top off the filing cabinet he was searching. This flushed out a large, partially transparent yellow spider, which startled the Gasman, who chucked the top of the cabinet at the spider. Now there were arachni-guts splattered all over the papers in the cabinet.

"Was there a point in that at all, Gaz?" Nudge asked, looking apprehensively at the spider goo and shooting an anxious glance at her own cabinet.

"Yeah, it looked like there was less space inside so-" He nodded towards the cabinet. There was a false back to the inside of the cabinet, creating a slot about two inches wide that would be suspiciously easy to hide things in.

Fang walked over and peered down into the slot, reaching into the hidden space and pulling out a stack of papers that were covered in cobwebs. He brushed them off and looked over the top paper swiftly, "We've got something," He said quietly, his eyes still on the sheet.

* * *

**Reviews? Suggestions? **


	14. Chapter 14

**Alright, since I can't reply to anonymous reviews, I'll just say here that I'm quite fond of that idea, FangFanGirl, and I really appreciate the suggestion. ( I'd keep my eyes open if I were you! You might see something coming ;) )**

**Since I missed Valentine's Day, I LOVE YOU ALL! . . . But not in a weird way.**

**And being that it's been a while, in the previous chapter the flock entered a tunnel and came upon a room full of filing cabinets, where Gazzy cracked the top off of one of them. Inside there were papers that Fang had proclaimed to be of importance. **

* * *

_**Max POV**_

Everyone rushed over to look at the papers, besides Iggy, who I knew would be straining to hear something. But before anyone could see the files, Fang handed them to me over their heads. Shot down, the flock watched me silently as I skimmed the paper.

It mentioned every member of the flock on it along with a few other people. The sheet even bothered to include physical characteristics, genetic data, and contact and address information for each. I felt my stomach do a funny sort of flip and I couldn't help but wonder if we'd finally hit the jackpot.

Then I noticed the addresses next to the names. Each one was titled as Itex Co. . . . And each was in at least a different state, and a couple in totally different countries.

_**Would you suppose that's where our stuff really is, then, Max?**_ Angel's voice inquired.

"Maybe," I said aloud, "It's worth checking out, I guess,"

"What's worth checking out?" Nudge asked, "Ooo! They're addresses. What do they say, Max?"

"Nothing you need to know about just now," I said, shooting her a look.

"Max-" Nudge began indignantly. Luckily, I didn't have to pursue the matter any further, due to Angel interrupting.

"Look!" She said, staring down at the single desk in the room.

"What?" I inquired, glancing over at her.

"Dr. Hayden!" Angel replied excitedly, "This desk has her name on it," I recognized the doctor's name carved on one of those little title blocks that people have on desks and bank booths. "And so do all the papers on it..."

"She's with Itex!" The Gasman proclaimed, "That might explain why-"

"Sh!" Iggy ordered from the doorway. Everyone fell silent immediately, listening intently. "I think- Someone's coming from the tunnel."

I shoved the papers into Skiter's hands, "Put them in your bag," I ordered quietly, loud enough for him to hear.

"But that's the way we came! How are we going to get out?" Nudge asked under her breath.

"There was a door at the end of the hall, wasn't there?" Fang asked quickly.

"Stairs!" I agreed.

We all rushed to the stairwell, closing the door to the room and the door to the tunnel as quickly as we could without making noise. If it hadn't been for the fact that the tunnels echoed everything within three miles, we'd never been able to hear the people approaching and had time to clear out. Unfortunately the stairs only went down, so we had no choice but to go deeper into the facility. Not to mention that it was increasingly difficult to refrain from tripping in the dull light that the flashlight was giving off. It flickered occasionally, and I was sure it was dying. We hadn't come across a single door for about four flights of stairs and half the flock was starting to seem a bit discouraged, until finally we stopped on a landing with a door, that not only was unlocked, but had a window, and inside there were lights illuminating a corridor of thick metal doors and false ceiling tiles.

"There's probably Whitecoats in there," Gazzy objected when I reached for the handle.

"And they've probably got a price on our heads," Nudge added nervously.

"I don't hear anyon-" Angel began, then the door above us slammed open.

I yanked the door handle, and the door swung open easily. It felt strange, getting into an Itex place without any real effort? I was on the edge of my nerves.

"Erasers," Iggy hissed under his breath, slipping through the door towards the back of the group by Skiter.

"It's four-point-oh, too." Fang stated, "The apes wouldn't leave me alone after I left,"

"Any good ways to take them down?" I asked as we sprinted down the hall.

"Outnumber them, surprise them, or fight them the way they fight you," He offered, "Mostly just try to avoid them," We made a turn onto another hall, and it started to look a bit less like an office building and more like a hospital. No longer was there plain cement flooring, or flat, neutral carpeting, but now it was ceramic tiling.

"There's at least six of them," Iggy remarked, "And seven of us, so the odds aren't in much favor. They already know we're here, so no factor of surprise. What's the way they fight?"

"Firearms," Fang replied, "Lots of them,"

"We're screwed," Nudge pronounced, surprisingly having little to say.

"Any bombs?" I asked.

"If we had time..." Skiter responded almost wistfully.

"We've got the electrical stuff, but we don't have any pre-made," Gazzy continued, "Not since that bomb near Dr. M's,"

We crashed through a set of metal double-doors, revealing another long hall, slightly inclined upward.

"How big is this place?" Nudge demanded.

"Look! There's an elevator at the end!" Angel exclaimed.

Once we had just reached the elevator, the double doors flew open. Gazzy continued to jam the up arrow with an unreasonable amount of force, increasingly faster. At the other end of the corridor there was a cluster of Erasers, most of them still human, weighed down with gear, and holding some serious-looking guns. The Eraser at the front looked like a girl in her teens, and she was the obvious leader. She was also the only one with a Bluetooth headset hooked around one of her ears. She raised her weapon, but before she could shoot the elevator dinged open and we all dove in. Someone smacked the button to close the doors and the Erasers opened fire, only a couple bullets made it into the elevator, shattering the mirrors on the back wall and burying themselves in the metal. The rest made hammer-like sounds on the opposite side of the doors. We began moving upward. The younger kids were breathing slightly heavily.

"I hit the Lobby button," Angel announced.

"Are you all okay?" I asked. I got a chorus of 'Yeah's and 'That I know of's.

"They look a lot more human," Skiter remarked.

"And the wolves look more like dogs," Fang added, "So they blend in a lot better." He was analyzing the holes where the bullets had punctured the wall. They were seeping some sort of fluid that was slowly dissolving the metal surrounding them.

"Shit, upgraded weapons too?" Skiter muttered, "What is that? Hydrofluoric acid?"

"If it is, then we're dead where we stand," Iggy mumbled.

"I don't want to know," Skiter hissed.

"What is that?" Fang inquired.

"Let's just say, it won't hurt right away, but your flesh will be absolutely useless if it's exposed to that stuff," Iggy replied.

"If you're exposed to even 24.8 square inches of it, then" Skiter added, sliding an index finger across his throat in a gesture of death.

The elevator dinged again and the doors slid open, exposing what appeared to be a normal hospital, with nurses speed-walking around in their scrubs and a desk with a couple of neat-looking people sitting behind it. We edged out of the elevator and into the lobby.

"I don't think they work for Itex," Angel murmured.

"So there's a facility just hidden under a regular hospital?" Nudge asked, "I wonder what else the tunnels connect, if there's more of these places and-"

"Can I help you?" A lady at the counter called over to us. "You look a little lost,"

"No," I said back with a sincere smile, "We were just visiting our uncle, but thanks," I took Angel's hand and lead the way outside, trying to look casual.

**"*****"*"*"**

_**Eraser POV**_

I ground my teeth as the elevator doors closed. I hoped someone had at least gotten that black-haired guy, or the bat-kid. Despite the fact that the rest of the Erasers around me shot to kill them all, I wasn't too interested in the bird-kids' deaths. Of course it would be less for me to deal with if they were dead, but I wasn't supposed to let them be killed. I slipped off my Bluetooth piece and ran a hand through my ponytail.

"That's the eleventh time they got away!" snapped one of the older Erasers.

"You know they were supposed to be hard to catch," I shot back at him, shouldering the gun I was holding.

"Or maybe we just need to find a new leader," He snarled. I promptly backhanded him in the side of the head.

"Just get back to the camp," I ordered and all of them turned and headed back the way we had come. I followed at the back, a bit slower. Once we reached the tunnels they all headed southbound, but I turned left, towards the north- and the manhole that I knew the bird-people had come through. There was at least one person who wasn't with them that could have- or maybe _should have_ been.

* * *

**The only knowledge I have of hydrofluoric acid is from the first couple paragraphs on it's Wiki, so don't freak on me if I get something wrong. xD**

_Alright, you don't have to read this if you don't want because it doesn't have anything to do with the story, but I thought you should know why I disappeared again. The main computer at my house took a crap and doesn't do anything but blow air, so it's no longer usable. I've also been having some serious issues with my laptop, which I have been using for this story. First, I was just having extremely slow internet, and then I wasn't able to use the internet at all. Now I can only get on a few sites. I had to try several times to get on to FanFiction, then I had to try even more to get logged in and onto the uploading page. Finally I got this chapter uploaded (Thank God). But then when I tried to save it, it kicked me off the internet again. And it continued to do this. I found that there was no way I was going to be able to post this chapter on my laptop, so I had to wait until I could find a new laptop that went on sale. So I got that, and went through and finally was able to get this up. _  
_I'm not one-hundred-percent certain whether is is just my old lap-top, or if my entire internet cable system is junk, because I know one of the cords for it are already bad, so I'll be doing my best to continue uploading, but I make no promises. Thank ya'll._


	15. Chapter 15

**Alright, I'm not setting anything concrete, because life is completely unexpected and uncontrollable, but you can probably expect updates every two weeks, give or take a few days, since now my schedule isn't the only one that's compromised by the writing of this story. So a big thank you is in order for xxFlutterStutterBOOMBOOMxx for agreeing to be my beta. **

* * *

_**Max POV**_

"Max, I'm _starving_."

I ground my teeth, watching the traffic idle past on the four-lane street, the late-afternoon sun glaring off the shiny vehicles. Times like these, sunglasses could be useful. "Alright, if you see a grocery store, we can get some food,"

"Thank God." Nudge said, slapping a high-five with Gazzy.

It wasn't as if I wasn't expecting them to be hungry after the hospital incident, but I didn't want to slow down because I was almost certain those Erasers would be coming after us shortly.

I kept getting a strange sense of déjà vu, because it was back down to just the flock. Not even five minutes after we walked out of the hospital, Skiter said he wanted to go back, and make sure the few we left behind were fine. I think he just didn't like being with the flock alone, being that he'd been with Sydney since she was little more than a baby and he cared for her in a way similar to how I had cared for Angel. I didn't object.

"Look!" Gazzy exclaimed.

"I'd love to, but I'm sort of blind, you know," said Iggy dryly.

"No," Gazzy continued, apparently too impatient to pay any attention to what Iggy had said, "Wal-Mart!"

Sure enough, just down the street we were on there was a giant blue sign indicating that one of the superstores was nearby. An alarm was sounding in my head, but what was I supposed to tell them? To wait and see if we could find somewhere else when a perfectly acceptable grocery store was right ahead of us?

Just as soon as we were through the door, the flock veered off in different directions, although they were at least smart enough to go in twos. I was fairly certain that Nudge and Angel went towards the nail polish, Gazzy and Iggy were talking in hushed voices about hand-held games as they went towards the electronics department, and that left me with Fang. Being that once we stepped though the sliding doors everyone had forgotten the reason we were here, Fang and I headed towards the food section.

"I bet Gazzy's wishing he still had the paintball gun," He remarked.

"It's bad enough as it is," I muttered, "You do remember that website Nudge showed everybody a while before Christmas, right? Things to do in Wal-Mart,"

"Of course," He said, "And I don't think they've forgotten either-" We both looked over by the TV display, where Gaz was rapidly flipping channels.

"I swear, if they get us caught-" I paused, looking away and turning into the isle with hot dogs.

Fang followed me, but his eyes focused on one of the one-way bulbs that hung from the ceiling and housed the security cameras. Even though you're not supposed to be able to see the cameras, even regular people can sometimes see the general shape of them through the dark-colored glass, and when you've got the eyes of a hawk, it's not so difficult to make out the video recorders. He watched it for a second, then looked away.

Suddenly, a sound blared through the store. Thanks to Gazzy's unconventional taste in music, I could recognize Weird Al when I heard it.

"Oh no," I looked at Fang. "You don't think-"

"I _know_," He nodded, shooting me an apprehensive look, "I'm not sure if I want to be the one responsible for those two, though,"

I gave him a long look, "Would you rather go to the cosmetics aisle to get the girls?"

"Touché," He said, "Are we-" He stopped when something shot past us, I turned right in time to get hit in the side of the head with something small and made out of foam.

"We got Max!" Gazzy's terrified voice exclaimed when he realized who he had hit.

"Run!" Iggy replied, and I saw the two dash down the aisles, Nerf guns in tow, and scarves wrapped around their faces.

"Get back here, brats!" I yelled, taking off after them, but Fang was at my side.

"I'll take care of them, you get the girls before security does," He suggested.

"Meet out back," I ordered, slowing to a jog. I had no clue where to look for the cosmetics department, and honestly didn't want that status to change. Thankfully, Angel showed up out of nowhere, Nudge right behind her. I was on the verge of asking how they knew where I was and that we were leaving, but I decided I either didn't want to know, didn't have the time to hear an explanation, or both.

"The camera systems are down," Angel announced, coming to a halt, her chest heaving, but not sounding winded at all. "And half of the employees who came after us are now stranded in a pool of shampoo."

"I think they're Erasers, Max," Nudge remarked.

"Wouldn't surprise me," I mumbled, catching sight of one of the pricks just then. He shouted something that could have been "They're over here," or maybe "Stop right there," but I didn't linger behind long enough to hear. Nudge, Angel, and I were already sprinting towards the back of the building. I hoped that if Fang hadn't already caught Gazzy and Iggy, that those two were having a hard time evading him. We crashed through a pair of heavy metal doors and into a sort of storage room that was filled with aisles of shelves stacked with products. Once I reached the opposite wall, the doors we had come through burst open.

"Down there!" Nudge hissed in my ear and I glanced down the wall. Nearby there was another metal door and we went to it, pushing it open. We were blasted with warm, relatively fresh air and sunlight immediately.

I made sure both Angel and Nudge were out before I closed the door in the Erasers' faces and ran after the two girls. We had about thirty yards of running space before we had to spread our wings. A second later the sound of muted gunfire ripped through the air. When I looked down, I saw the mob of Erasers that had chased us through the store, and then I also saw a cluster of armed bullies on the roof of Wal-Mart, drawing beads on our foreheads.

I didn't see the guys anywhere, but we couldn't hover around like sitting ducks - as ironic as that analogy was. "U and A!" I called, laying on the speed and shooting up and out of the rifle's range, Nudge and Angel flanking me.

**"*"*"**

_**Eraser POV**_

I crossed my arms and leaned back onto two chair legs. I'd failed _again_, but what was new was that I'd also been caught doing something that was seriously looked down upon. I'd gone on my own stealth run. After the elevator shoot-and-miss in the city hospital I went looking for the others, the ones that I knew weren't with the flock, just to see how they compared, and to see how many were really sitting on the sidelines. I knew that there were two groups, not only because if there weren't, we'd be ordered to do little more than light up the bird-freaks with explosives and our guns, but also because I had noticed that Dylan wasn't with the main group and I was certain he wasn't dead-

"Michaela," said a stern, demanding voice, "Are you listening?"

I fell forward, back onto all four of the chair legs, knocked out of my reverie. "What?" I looked at my boss. Mr. Sterling wasn't an Eraser, but he was something inhuman, of that I was certain. I assumed it had something to do with quick to make decisions or being a nagging jerk with a voice that's always too loud for the situation. I preferred to settle with the latter.

His gray eyes narrowed at me, his bushy almost-unibrow furrowing in contempt. "Did you hear a thing I was saying?"

I bit back a snide response, "I'm very sorry, Sir, what was it?"

"Your behavior has been increasingly defiant," Mr. Sterling said, speaking as if to a room full of people, when in reality, it was just him and me in his office. "I'm not sure if we can let it slip any longer, considering the lack of proficiency and execution we've seen from you."

"Oh, so you believe I've lost my touch," I remarked, trying not to sound too rude. "But really, I think we may be underestimating their capabilities, I think I might be catching on to their method. It can't be too much longer,"

He eyed me speculatively, "You've got five days before we retire you,"

I clenched my jaw, replying with a curt "Thank you,"

"You are dismissed," He waved his hand vaguely and shuffled some papers on his desk as I stood up and walked out.

I headed towards my dorm, feeling absolutely trampled. Here he was, telling me I had five days to do exactly what, up until a few months ago, I was told I should avoid doing at all costs, or else I was heading six feet under. That is, if they even graced us with proper burials. I wasn't exactly well-informed on the whole postmortem process around here, and I doubt that I'd like to be.

Of course, I could always go back and tell him I knew which group of bird-people we could get away with killing long enough to take out the other group as well, but that was one of the few things I outlawed. It was one of the two or three things that I knew I would feel bad about doing; turning traitor on Dylan.

In a sense, he was all the family I had, no matter how different our lives were - and are. He'd been my only lab-mate. The only other living, breathing, speaking thing I had any contact with that wasn't a scientist. Of course, he was sent to help the flock, and he didn't have any double-agent work he had to organize and keep under wraps. I, on the other hand, was sent behind enemy lines, and told to do everything I could to keep the flock alive. I declined that mission almost immediately when I snuck into the tunnels. I had no intention to murder the flying mutants, but I wasn't going to risk my neck for them either.

**"*"*"**

_**Kacey POV**_

I leaned against the counter, my eyes closed and my breathing slow. Over on the couch I could hear Sydney thumbing through the newspaper, looking out for anything suspicious, but so far the fishiest thing we'd found was an article about an escaped wallaby. Dylan was flipping the television remote into the air and catching it. Every once in a while he'd mutter "I hate this," to himself. We were all bored out of our minds, and we had no clue where the flock was.

After we'd waited in the woods for a while, hoping against hope that we'd hear from the flock and get back into the train-and-caboose thing we had going on, but we eventually accepted the fact we weren't going to run into them out in a forest. Reluctantly, we headed to the city and got a room in a shabby, but mostly clean motel. There wasn't any more we could do, that is until-

"The subway," Dylan stated unexpectedly, ceasing his repetitive remote-tossing. I opened my eyes and looked at him.

"You want a sandwich?" Sydney asked, "Or a train?"

"A train," He said, "I don't know, they were in a, a tunnel somewhere, and it opened into a larger tunnel, with train rails."

"They, as in the flock?" I inquired.

This seemed to trip him up. Apparently he had been convinced he'd seen the flock, but instead he was now questioning his previous assessment. "No..."

"Who's they, then?" Sydney asked.

"I- I don't know," He replied, his expression completely sincere, but his voice gave him away.

Despite the slight falter in his honesty, Sydney looked satiated.

I narrowed my eyes. "Dylan-" I began. He regarded me calmly. "You really shouldn't lie to us." He just gave a noncommittal nod.

* * *

**I was in Wal-Mart (what a coincidence, right?) and I saw this dude with long-ish strawberry blond hair that reminded me so much of Iggy. I literally stopped in the middle of the aisle and stared, but then he saw me, so I looked away and walked past really quick. Of course, I also tripped in the process and embarrassed myself further. Smooth, Trinly. Real smooth.**

**Keep reviewing! Reviews make the world go 'round! We _love_ reviews!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter sixteen. Here it Be. Enjoy. And another thanks to xxFlutterStutterBOOMBOOMxx for looking this over and making several of my sentences flow that much better. **

* * *

_**Fang POV (This steps back a bit into the last chapter, at about the same time Max, Nudge, and Angel are escaping Wal-Mart)**_

So I wasn't particularly thrilled that the pyro-twins decided to be completely oblivious to fact that we were being chased, and rather do everything in their power to avoid me catching up with them. This included throwing merchandise in the aisles as they passed through. We were almost to the glass sliding doors before they finally slowed down.

"Iggy, the doors are closed!" Gazzy called, only barely in time to stop Ig from going splat. Gaz shot a frightened look over his shoulder at me that reminded me faintly of a cornered rabbit.

"Now, are you two done being immature, because we've got pursuers," I hissed.

"So you're not going to kill us?" Iggy asked, raising an eyebrow, a hand on the glass panel of the door.

"No, but the security might." I replied, glancing back the way we'd come. There were already several uniformed Erasers converging on us. "Can we bust down the doors?" I asked under my breath.

"I think so," Iggy answered quietly. "One, Two-"

We both slammed our shoulders into the glass and I heard a sound that was some mix of a crack and a high-pitched scrape. I stepped back as Iggy rolled his shoulder, mouthing the word "Ow." There was a spidery link of fissures in the panel, and with a well-aimed kick thick glass shards fell away from the door frame. By now the Erasers were practically on us and we climbed through the broken door as an alarm started sounding in a security room somewhere.

The next set of doors was closed as well, and I wasn't sure if I'd be up to breaking another heavy-duty glass door. I was already going to have a bruise from the first one, I knew that much.

"The carts! The door for the carts!" Gazzy exclaimed, and despite the fact that listening to Gaz usually ends in agony for your nose, or the loss of half your wardrobe, we turned left and headed towards the door the carts normally came through. Believe it or not, that folding door was standing open at waist height. We ducked under it and once we were outside I heard shots being fired, but it didn't sound like we were the targets.

_Max. Nudge. Angel.__Effing wonderful._

"We gonna check it out?" Gaz asked.

"We should," I replied, already on the lookout for attackers and stretching my wings out as I spoke, "Let's just try not to get in the way unless we have to."

"Could be a diversion," Iggy agreed. We all took to the air, circling over Wal-Mart to get a look at the Erasers on the roof. They'd just stopped firing at their first target, and most of them weren't looking up anymore, however I recognized the brown-haired girl who'd lead the first attack on us just a bit earlier that day. The moment she saw me she raised her gun.

"Split!" I ordered, dropping into a sudden dive to avoid getting hit, and Iggy and Gazzy both veered off as well. Regardless of my maneuver, something small and solid tore through the end of one of my wings, inducing a sudden eruption of pain. I eased out of my dive and instead headed away from the homicidal-maniac-infested superstore. I spotted Iggy flying in a northeast direction and I called for Gazzy before heading after him.

"Where's Max?" Iggy asked as we approached.

"Well if we knew, we'd have told you," I replied.

"Fair enough," Ig gave a partial nod.

**"*****"*"**

_**Dylan POV**_

I glanced up at the two girls. Sydney appeared to be inspecting her auburn hair for split ends and Kacey was doodling idly on a scrap of the newspaper with a pen she'd found in one of the drawers in the motel room.

"They're not going to come looking for us," Sydney said without preamble. "We need to go find them. And this is not helping us whatsoever." She gestured limply at the motel room.

"I second that emotion," Kacey agreed, not looking up from her newspaper page, coloring I all of the _a_'s, _o_'s, _d_'s, and like letters. "However, even if we did set out and blaze our trail in this vast concrete jungle, where would we go?"

"Well, there was an Itex place somewhere around here. Maybe we could go check it out..." Sydney trailed off at the entirely doubtful look Kacey was giving her.

"Why don't we ask Mr. Clairvoyant to use his premonition?" Kacey asked, clicking her pen and setting it on the coffee table, regarding me expectantly.

"Shut up, Bubbles," I said, "It's not room service. It won't come if I ask it to,"

"Can we, like, provoke it?" Sydney suggested. I gave her a look. "Just wondering, jeez."

"Well, where would the flock go?" Kacey said, tapping her chin in exaggerated thought.

Then it came to me, "They have to eat sometime, don't they?"

So then we packed up our meager belongings and left the motel, walking deeper into the city. It wasn't a very good lead, but it was the only semi-real one we had. After a decent amount of walking, and peering rather suspiciously into stores that sold food products, Sydney spoke up.

"Look, up." She said, staring at the sky. We all looked upwards, and I noticed three bird-like figures coasting somewhere above us. Now, any normal human would've thought _bird_ and left it at that, but being an avian for my whole existence gave me a different impression. Not to mention I could see that far, easy, and I could tell they were humans. Humans I recognized as well.

"They split up?" Kacey inquired. Apparently they'd both been able to catch on to the fact that the things flying above us weren't merely birds. I wasn't sure whether either of them could actually see what they were, but knew that Sydney didn't possess the raptor-vision, likely because she was part bat rather than part bird, and bats didn't use sight like birds did. And Kacey's eyesight wasn't as good as the flock's, if not my own.

"Probably forcibly," Sydney added.

"It's the guys," I chimed in.

"As in, Fang, Ig and Gazzy?" Kacey asked.

I nodded, "I should probably go up and-"

"Not you," She said.

"What?" I inquired.

"Not you," Kacey repeated, "Firstly, Fang likely doesn't want to see you, also-"

"Don't suggest that you go, you're not even supposed to be here. Gazzy is completely unaware of the fact you have wings and Iggy shouldn't know what little he does," I interrupted. She mouthed a cuss word and folded her arms across her chest.

"Sydney should go," She said.

"Me?" Sydney asked, looking like her first reaction was to decline.

"We'll be right down here," Kacey said, checking out the buildings surrounding us.

Sydney glanced between us, "I'll be right back,"

**"*****"*"**

_**Michaela POV**_

Good. God.

They were already planning another raid on the flock, although we had no clue where they went. I couldn't object and say that it was futile, because that could be the end of me. Instead, I merely crossed my arms and scowled at the table, not really listening to Mr. Sterling and the others talk. Suddenly the door burst open. In the doorway was a tall, skinny guy. Probably a tad bit older than me, but likely not in the recon group. I knew my theory was correct when he spoke; he was obviously one of the tech-nerds.

"I think we found the secondary group," He said and my stomach dropped. There was the primary group- Max and her mutant party, and there was the secondary group, which included Dylan. "They passed by the security cameras of a drugstore in northern Miami. The three of them,"

"Perfect," Mr. Sterling huffed, "We have our plan of action." He looked at me, "You've a few minutes to pull your team together and go. Jones," He turned to the tech dude, who gave a quiet, corrective "It's James," that was ultimately ignored as Mr. Sterling continued, "Get the address of this drugstore to Michaela before they leave."

The guy nodded and left immediately. I got out of my chair and left the room, jogging down to the dorms to alert the seven other Erasers on my squad. I walked through the door-less archway and announced that we had a mission. They all immediately began pulling on boots and jackets.

I walked over to my bunk and pulled my hair into a ponytail. My eyes focused on my corkboard, where I kept old newspaper clippings. Most of them were about Michaela Thomas, who had died shortly after her fifteenth birthday. Of course, this Michaela was me, but she was still different.

I was still only fifteen in every way that counts, the only way I wasn't is that my birthday was over fifteen years ago. I was made in a way similar to Dylan, and I had died, but instead of being remade, I had been revived. After my death, they kept me in an icebox and eventually managed to bring me back to life. Although I couldn't recollect my actual death, I knew from my obituary that I died in a car accident. I don't know how they fixed me up so I was in a decent state, but I do know that while they did this, they also grafted my DNA, and eventually managed to get my heart pumping and put me in a coma. And unlike Dylan, I remembered a few things about my old life. I remembered that I was pretty much a selfish pessimist, who blamed everything on my father who divorced my mother when I was hardly able to walk.

The other clippings on the board were about my family; the marriage article of my parents, my father's second marriage article, with his new wife ripped out of the picture, and a short article of my half-brother's birth. I imagined this brother of mine having a nice life, not even caring about his father's first kid and being totally carefree as he walked through the school hallways, laughing with his friends. And there was me, trained to kill, with the ability to transform into a wolf, and wings planted on my back.

Life was an effed-up thing.

* * *

**Alright, I know I'm just a harbinger of bad news, but I have computer issues. Again. I have a gihumungous virus infection in my laptop and I can't do anything with it until I can get it cleaned, which could be a while, and even then I'm not sure if my documents will be the same as I'd saved them. Yet, if we keep our fingers crossed, my rate of updating might not be affected. **

**Review! That's what I post this story for. I show you my work, and I want to hear your opinions. So I'd appreciate some responses. Please?**


	17. Chapter 17

**Epic news: everything that was on my computer is still there! So this chapter was untouched! So I'm posting it sooner than usual! And I'm totally abusing exclamation marks!**

* * *

_**Kacey POV**_

I sat down on the roof, watching Sydney fly off towards the guys.

"So, what's your story going to be?" Dylan asked reluctantly, leaning against the concrete ledge that lined the edge of the roof.

"Why does there need to be a story?" I said, "I don't want to have a story."

"What? Do you really think it'd be any better if you told them the truth?" Dylan demanded, "Kacey, if you were going to tell the truth, you should've done it from the very beginning, because now you're just screwed."

"Well I can't help it if I never assumed we'd be put in a situation like this, and that being honest from the start and taking all the distrust would've been easier," I muttered.

"None of us could've assumed that this would happen. None of us would have wanted to assume that Itex would be on our asses again after all this time. If anyone could, it would've been Max, because out of everyone- she'd have the most experience with this sort of stuff,"

"Oh don't be so modest, it really gets annoying very fast," I sneered, "Don't pretend like you don't have any clue what's going to happen in the future. You've got precognition, get used to it,"

"I've told you that it doesn't work that w-" He began.

"Shut up, they're coming," I snapped, not letting him finish.

"So you're just going to let the lie-filled cat out of the bag, then?"

"What other choice do I have, unless you have some ingenious story in that thick skull of yours, I don't have a thing," I said, "Nor do I really have the nerve to go on with this stupid charade."

"What about Itex?" Dylan remarked, "What if they find out?"

"I doubt they can do much more than they're doing already." I grumbled, "It's not like I actually want to inflict anything more on the flock."

He regarded me for a moment. "I hope they shun you," he mumbled. We exchanged glares.

I tried to keep my account short, to the point, and as non-incriminating as possible. But I was still getting looks. Fang had shot me glance that read somewhere along the lines of you're deciding to do this now? From the stare Gazzy was giving me, you would've thought I was an annoying cockroach that he truly wanted to kill. Or seriously maim. Iggy was looking at me speculatively. Sydney plain didn't look impressed. She'd known about my wings, but hadn't said anything, for which I was thankful.

"I knew it!" She exclaimed, then stuck her tongue out at me.

"That's wonderful," Fang said, "But I have a question,"

"Yes, Fang," I said as if I were talking to a young child.

He gave me a looked that told me he wasn't very amused. "Where's Skiter?"

"I thought he was with you guys," Dylan said.

"He was..." Iggy replied quietly, "Up until a little while ago. I would've thought he'd found you guys by now."

"Well, either he's not as good with directions as he is numbers, or..." I glanced at Sydney, who had a weird expression on her face. It might have been deep confusion, badly disguised dismay, or just plain irritation. "Sidd?" I inquired.

She looked at me, startled. "Huh?" She asked stupidly.

"Skiter? Any ideas? You look pretty uptight," I asked.

"We might be close," She said, "But he doesn't tell me everything," There was minor irritation in her voice and I wasn't sure whether it was directed at me or at Skiter. Maybe both. She muttered something that was somewhere along the lines of, "He would've told me if he wanted to leave."

"So- Now what?" Gazzy inquired quietly, then perked up a bit, "Food?"

"If we don't want to black out or anything, that'd be a good idea," Iggy agreed.

From the reaction to the comment, everyone seemed to agree to this, so we all went back down onto the main street and started looking for a suitable place to eat. Dylan admitted that he had a decent store of cash, so we wouldn't have to go dumpster diving.

Over the time I'd spent around him, I'd gotten a pretty good idea as to how he'd been living. Dr. Hans was paying for an apartment somewhere in the same town Dr. M lived in. He was supported pretty much completely by Dr. Hans. The way it sounded, he had at least a hundred bucks on him. Me- I only had about a dollar seventy-eight. And a piece of paper that I was certain had gone through the wash in the pocket of my jeans. I think it was the problems of a math assignment... Wouldn't need that anymore.

"What about that place," Gazzy pointed to a bar across the street.

"Sketchy," Sydney sang out the y.

"I can smell B.O. and stale cigarettes from here." Iggy muttered.

"Isn't smoking banned from public buildings?" I asked.

"Not in Florida," Fang remarked.

"Yuck," Gazzy mumbled. Fang gave him a somewhat approving glance. Iggy faked choking.

"Kwik Trip?" Dylan asked.

"Kwik Trip sounds good," Sydney said, peering around, "Do you see one?"

"Uh, up behind the next corner and down the block," He answered. We all looked at him, except for Fang and Iggy.

"Freaky," Gazzy commented.

"I've had to deal with this for how long, now?" I muttered. Dylan arched his eyebrows at me, daring me to complain. We both knew that his sight was the only thing that kept us with the flock. "I complain for the sake of complaining. It's a common fault among women. You'll have to get accustomed to it," I didn't need to read minds like Angel to hear the gears turning in both Dylan's and Fang's heads. It's not a fault Max has.

**"*****"*"**

_**Max POV**_

Crap. Crap. Crap.

I didn't want to leave the guys behind, but we were outnumbered. And they had guns. Here we are again, back to the whole bulletproof issue.

I couldn't think of what would have happened if they hadn't gotten out of the building, so I tried to convince myself there was no way they couldn't have gotten away. And, if two groups was better than one, three must have been pretty good. I shoved my hands in the pockets of my windbreaker. Now, what to do...

Well, food was obvious. I could tell that both Nudge and Angel were even hungrier after our second escapade, and I could've sworn my stomach was trying to eat itself by the way it felt. We were probably going to get something to go, and hope Fang would have brought the guys somewhere we could find them. Then, maybe we should look into that sheet of addresses.

Add another crap to the list above, why don't you? I had given the papers to Skiter! I couldn't believe I had been so mindless. So now, if I wanted to check those addresses, I'd have to find the other group. This was going wonderfully...

"Can you, like hear them or something, Angel?" Nudge was asking as we walked down a street. "I mean, their thoughts. Or are they too far away or something? That would really-"

"I'm pretty sure they got out alright," Angel repeated for the third time.

"Okay. That's good." Nudge sighed, finally satiated. "So are we going to go to a restaurant and get take out, or what?"

"I don't know," I shrugged, "Whatever comes up, I guess."

"Well, what about Kwik Trip?" Angel asked.

"Kwik Trip is good, why?" I inquired.

"Because it sounds like that's where Fang, Gazzy, and Iggy are." She replied.

"There's a lot of Kwik Trips around Miami, Ange," I said.

"But we can just see, right?"

"Sure," I answered.

**"*"*"**

_**Kacey POV**_

As we squished into one of the Kwik Trip booths, I noticed that Fang slightly winced when he leaned back against the back rest. Speaking on impulse, I said "What's your problem?"

He gave me a look that would've killed puppies all the way on the other side of the world. I arched an eyebrow at him as Dylan slid into the seat next to me, and Sydney after him. It felt strangely... definite. Like there was Fang, Iggy, and the Gasman, and then there were us. Us in our own little... cluster. An even sadder bunch of misfits for the most part. We weren't a family. The flock was- and so much more.

"He got shot," Iggy said, oh-so tactfully.

Sydney nearly choked on the piece of pizza she had practically shoved down her throat. Albeit being the queen of everything socially acceptable, she still ate like a wild dog that hadn't eaten in a month. "Like, with a gun?"

"No, it was marshmallow revolver," Gazzy said, closing one eye and pointing both of his hands, imitating shooting a pistol at her from across the table.

"It nicked my wing, no big deal," Fang mumbled, picking up his hamburger.

"Last time I checked, getting shot was a big deal," I said, glaring at him.

"You're not in charge of me, so stop acting like it," he replied quietly.

"Right, I'll just have to tell Max next time I see her," I shrugged, taking a bite out of the chicken sandwich I had grabbed.

"Who says Max is in charge of him, either?" Dylan remarked.

"It's common knowledge that you're both whipped," Sydney said, licking her fingers.

Dylan seemed only mildly irritated by this, but Fang glowered at the table as he ate.

After an awkward moment of quietude, Gazzy broke the silence. "Maybe you should have somebody else check the wound or whatever, though."

Fang closed his eyes for a short second, "Gaz," He said, looking down the table at him, "You're really not helping,"

"But wasn't there acid or something in the bullets?" The Gasman continued, "It could be eating you as we speak," His eyes flared wide for emphasis.

"It just grazed me, I'm pretty sure it didn't rupture like the one did that hit the wall." Fang persisted.

"It's for your own good," Iggy stated as if it settled the matter, shoving the last bit of his cheeseburger in his mouth. He gave a muffled sound of surprise. "That was my foot, thank you," he remarked, punching Fang in the arm. Fang raised his elbow and pinned Iggy to the headboard of the booth by his throat. "You started it," Iggy insisted, "Get off!"

Gazzy scooted to the very end of that side of the booth, looking ready to spring to safety if a real fight rose.

"Just give it up," I muttered.

"That might be a good idea," Dylan said, looking out the window over my head.

"What- ?" I turned to look out the window.

"Max," Gazzy said, "How do you think she found us?"

"We have bigger issues at the moment," I said, "Sydney, get out, we need to go!"

"Oh sh- oot!" She said, as if she were about to say something else, which I didn't doubt. She got out of the booth and me and Dylan followed suit.

"See you guys some other time, then," I called as we headed towards the back door.

Just as we were going to push through the door, it opened. I was afraid it was going to be an employee who would insist we don't use that door, but instead it wasn't, it was a girl. She was probably somewhere around my age with dusty brown hair, bright green eyes, and weighed down with a backpack and heavy-duty boots.

"Michaela?" Dylan asked in shock.

"You know-" Sydney began.

Michaela's face quickly lost its immediate surprise, "Shut up," She said, "Follow me."

"But-" Dylan hesitated. Sydney and I both glanced between them, pretty much lost.

"Is there anyone else with you?" Michaela demanded.

"The rest of the flock is out there," I said, nodding my head towards the café part of the station.

"We need to get them and go," She said, cutting between our group of three and heading back into the store.

* * *

**Although I got this chapter up so soon, I'm not sure when I'll have the next one up because I'm currently reading two large books that are both very good, and very distracting. I find it hard to switch back and forth between stories... Fan fiction and public works alike. I've also got some 4-H stuff coming up soon. So far I have 904 words down on Chapter 18, so I'm about halfway to the word count I aim for.**

**Random fact of the day: I was asked approximately six times by the same person whether I had dirty thoughts about Spongebob. Anyone who's read the files in the end of FANG should recognize this question. I was even more horrified when said person switched to asking whether I had dirty thoughts about Max. **

**Review? You know you have something to say. Or maybe that's just me...**


	18. Chapter 18

**I know this is a bit short, but I've had a lot to do lately, and I couldn't muster the ambition to type up much more. And I'm still reading two large books, as well.**

**I'm beta-ing a story by YbbaSkcos called School's in Session, and I'd suggest you check it out. It's legit.**

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_**Max POV**_

After I had understood that Dylan's convincing Fang to leave the flock probably saved all our lives - and consequently the world, I didn't despise him quite as much, but every little thing he did was still going to be heavily criticized. And when the obsessive pain came around the corner, murderous Eraser at his side; that was absolutely inexcusable.

We immediately vacated the place, tripping the fire alarm on our way out. It wasn't long after that the building went up in flames. I'm sure Kwik Trip was going to get a few bad reviews after this. We managed to take off without being seen and flew until we finally landed in some woods somewhere around Tennessee, or maybe Kentucky. We were wiped, and very thankful that the bunch that had been in Kwik Trip before had thought ahead and stocked up on food.

I wasn't going to admit it to anyone, but I did kind of feel like I was getting soft. The old Max, the one that played her part in the very first book, wouldn't have batted an eyelash at an Eraser, and the Eraser wouldn't have had any eyelashes left to bat, but I reluctantly let this Michaela character follow us. Not until after a fair amount of convincing from Dylan, whom I was growing a bit suspicious of, and making sure she wasn't bugged or anything.

Michaela didn't seem to favor anyone in the flock, other than the fact she seemed to particularly dislike Fang, Kacey, and Sydney. At the moment Iggy was trying to get information from her. She was unhesitatingly answering his every question, but at the same time she was stabbing the fire with a stick, using an unnecessary amount of force.

Why did we let the Eraser have a sharp, potentially harmful object? Hell if I know, but the look on her face was starting to make me fear for the Igster's safety.

I had heard enough of their conversation to know the basics of her story. I figured Iggy would let me know if he found anything suspicious. That is, if Michaela didn't threaten to impale him with her fire pick first.

Instead I turned to the exchange going on on my other side; Kacey and Nudge were, in essence, interrogating Sydney.

"He would have told me if he was going to do something," Sidd insisted. "Maybe he got lost." I knew they were talking about Skiter, MIA.

"How often do your type get lost?" Nudge asked, "Because, like, you're bat people. Bird people have this built-in direction thing, do you? So, can you find places and stuff like we can?"

On the outside it appeared that Kacey was very stoical with Nudge, but I knew she was mildly impatient with her inability to stay on topic. "Maybe he came up with something and found the perfect time to act, and just couldn't get back to you beforehand." Kacey suggested.

"No," Sydney said, sounding like she was trying to gain confidence in her words for herself almost as much as she was them. "He wouldn't do that."

"They could have captured him, too, I guess." Kacey said, not seeming very convinced. Sydney caught her look and turned her eyes on the ground, downcast, as Nudge launched into a commentary about why Skiter may have been caught.

I glanced across the fire and saw Gazzy and Angel attempting to make s'mores with only marshmallows and a couple unsubstantial-looking pieces of chocolate, no graham crackers. It was nice to think they were still enjoying the sorts of things kids should be doing, even in this threatening, unpredictable time we had. Angel must have gotten a glimpse of my thoughts because she looked at me, giving me a smile that could, in all ways, be described as angelic. I returned her smile and got to my feet, heading into the trees, kind of hoping to find a nice, comfy-looking tree to sleep in. Rather than coming across a sufficient tree, however, I heard voices. I walked forward to investigate, and what I saw surprised me. And after all I've been through, surprising me isn't that easy. It was Fang and Dylan. And they were talking. Civilly. What next? Talking dogs? Oh wait- we've already got one of those.

"-read her so well," Dylan was saying, "And it's obvious that she returns it."

"Are you actually saying she could be closer to someone else than she could be to you?" Fang replied.

"It wasn't that long ago that you were hell-bent on making sure everybody knew they didn't stand a chance against you."

"You know it wasn't really like that." Dylan regarded Fang somewhat scrutinizingly, "Not that bad, anyway." He paused for a moment, "Yeah. I can't deny that you've always been closer to her than I could have ever hoped to be. She's just as close to you as well." Notice the past-tense in that bit, a sentence back? That kind of scared me. Just a little. Fang crossed his arms, tilting his head against the tree he was leaning on. I knew he was waiting for the catch. Dylan sensed this. "She doesn't trust me enough, or she trusts you too much- It's not me she needs right now. Apparently it's you she thinks she needs." Dylan shrugged, then almost reluctantly added, "So long as it makes her happy, I can deal with it. I won't like it, but I'll deal with it."

Fang contemplated this for a moment, "At least you know when to back away." He decided. I turned and headed back as silently as I could, not wanting to be caught eavesdropping.

I went back and sat next to the fire, abandoning my search for a sleeping place. Not long after I sat down beside the fire again Fang and Dylan came walking back, each carrying a substantial armful of sticks and branches to feed the fire, although we all knew it would be dangerous to keep it supplied and burning. After dropping his bundle unceremoniously near the fire, Fang came over and sat next to me.

"Well hey there," I remarked.

He nodded, "Where are we going next, Boss?" He inquired quietly.

"I don't know, where do you think we should go, Cadet?" I replied.

"You're the leader, you should know these things." He argued.

"Leaders can't operate alone." I disagreed.

"You've been doing a damn good job of it so far."

"Yeah," I scoffed, "Because once again, we're in the woods, eating hotdogs off sticks and sleeping in trees."

"You can't control these things, Max." He continued, "All you can do is make sure the rest of them get through it just as strong as they possibly can. And that's something you're good at."

I looked at him and he gave me a sidelong glance. I turned my gaze on the fire, "So," I said, sounding professional again, "Did you have an idea for our next destination, then?"

"San Francisco." He responded tersely.

"San Francisco," I repeated, "Why?"

"That was the first Itex plant listed on those papers." He replied, "Best bet says they're pretty... high on the food chain."

I narrowed my eyes slightly, "Alright," I consented, "Sounds like a plan."

It wasn't long before I ordered everybody to sleep, expecting to set out to California the next day. The flock spread about, choosing their sleeping places. Gazzy and I were going on first watch, but I didn't fully count on him staying up with me.

"God Iggy, move over." I heard Kacey complain.

"You move over," Ig shot back drowsily. There was a thump that suggested Kacey had whapped him in the side. "Fine, Your Highness." He muttered grumpily.

Nudge and Sidd were still whispering just barely loud enough for me to hear and I quietly told them to shut up and go to sleep. Sydney responded with a "Yes, Max," at the same time Nudge said "When you do."

My dysfunctional, anything but normal family. If only it was even somewhat as mellow as this more often. It'd be nice to live a day without having that fear of your life hanging over your head. Can't have everything.

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**I'd just like to say that I'm very grateful to all of you for sticking with me over the course of this story, and that I hope you continue to read it. It's pretty cool knowing that there are people out there that might actually enjoy reading your work. **

**Review? It takes two seconds and it means a ton to me. **

**Random fact of the day: My friend and I somehow came up with the idea of Angel doing the robot. One of the strangest mental pictures I've had in a while.**


	19. Chapter 19

**I can't apologize enough, but my computer has been a butt for the longest time, and I'm still trying to find loopholes to be able to upload my chapters. With any luck, things are going to improve. **

**I'm now on summer break, so I should have lots of time to type. Operative word being _should. _**

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_**Max POV**_

Now it was bad enough that we had to fly across the country. But then it just had to start raining, didn't it? Of course, everyone knows it's bad to be high up in rain because of this little thing we like to call lightning. And electrocution. Really, none of us wanted that to happen, so we ended up landing in some rural area with a massive lack of civilization. I could just imagine inbred cannibals jumping out of the woods by the road and trying to roast us for dinner. I really shouldn't have watched Wrong Turn with Ella at that sleepover she had...

We walked into this little shell of a town, pleased to see that out of the three businesses in a mile radius, one was a motel that prided itself in being family owned for the past century. I managed to buy a map and found the town on it, glad to find that we'd made it over halfway to California.

Somehow, Nudge had talked Dylan into renting a DVD. Or maybe just annoyed him into submission. You never really know with Nudge. But either way, nearly everybody was crowded around the TV in one of our rooms. I retreated into the empty room, laying on one of the two queen beds. My headaches seemed to be reappearing. The Voice, however, made no commentary. Somewhere in the nearly nonexistent background noise I heard the door open and close softly. Someone sat on the end of the bed and I rolled over to see that it was Fang.

"Antisocial?" He inquired, his eyes flicking towards me.

"Nah, my head just- kinda hurts." I replied, not wanting to cause alarm. What did I know? Maybe it was just a normal, run-of-the-mill headache and I was assuming it to be more.

His gaze narrowed on me, knowing I wasn't being totally honest. "Max, if y-"

"Oh stop." I interjected, pulling myself into a slouched sitting position. "I'm fine. I'll live." He shook his head lightly and I heard him mumble something about the "same old Max." "What was it you wanted?" I knew better than to expect that he just came here for my company. Not that it was totally out of the question - but there seemed to be an unspoken agreement between us that anything romantic would have to wait until the world wasn't teetering on our actions.

"Did you notice what town we're in?" He asked, looking at me with a slightly amused expression.

My eyebrows furrowed, "What town we're in? You mean other than wondering how it's even considered anything more than an unusually closely grouped cluster of farms?"

His mouth quirked into a half smile, "There was an address on some paper or another. In this town." He said.

"Here? No. You're crazy. How much water have you drunk from the tap?" I gave him an odd look.

"Jeez Max, are you that distrusting of the city water system?" He said, still smiling. Fang had really loosened up since he left, I realized. I never remembered him being this light and... normal-looking. He'd been so much more somber than the rest of us ever since we were little. Maybe he hadn't been so much so when I'd first met him, but I couldn't really say. I'd shut those memories off so deliberately for so long that a lot of what I did recollect from our time at the School was fuzzy and indistinct. "I think we should check it out. It wouldn't take long to find..."

"In a little bit- we can scope out the place, but the flock deserves a little down ti-" I began.

"I was thinking just me and you."

I looked at him for a moment in surprise. He looked back unwaveringly. "Fang..."

"Did you replace your right-wing man?" He asked, "Because if you did, then feel free to take him instead, but I just thought-"

"Yeah, yeah." I said, sounding a bit flustered to my own ears. "Alright. We should go and tell them, then."

Something in his expression brightened and I slipped off the bed, "That's right, be happy. You just ruined my chances of getting a nap."

The flock exchanged a few looks when we told them that Fang and I were going on a walk. A few minutes later found us wandering the few streets of the town. We were sticking close to each other, and I had a feeling I wasn't the only one resisting the urge to entwine our hands. Our direction was almost as random as our conversation. The initial reason for the walk may have been to pinpoint the address, but we couldn't help but feel a bit relaxed.

"I suppose we'll just go back to Mom's." I shrugged. For some reason we were talking about what we'd do when - if - we somehow ended whatever it was we were hunting down and the save-the-world business was laid to rest.

"You haven't met Sar- my mom yet." He mused, correcting himself from saying her actual name. "You'll have to come back with me. The flock, too. I think you'd like her."

I shrugged, "I think we could do that." We exchanged a smile before he glanced at a stone building across the street.

"Hey," He said, coming to a halt.

"Is that it?" I asked.

"Looks like it. Pretty promising." He replied. There'd be the partial sentences I was so used to with him. Old habits die hard, I suppose.

"The courthouse?" I inquired, reading the protruding letters across the top of the building. Apparently they needed a de-birding because nearly every letter housed a nest of some sort.

He gave the building a contemplative look then turned his eyes on me, "Maybe we could just walk in, then."

"Worth a try, I guess." I offered.

I didn't realize just how muggy and nasty it was outside until I stepped into the air-conditioning. Despite the slightly worn-out look that dusted the whole town, the courthouse had a very business-y feel to it and was obviously well-taken care of. The nubby carpeting under my shoes was free of dirt and stains and the counter up ahead was orderly and uncluttered. There were little boards on either side of the counter, listing the different offices and such in the building. I caught sight of one labeled as the 'City Records Archive' and I turned to Fang, but he must have noticed it at the same time. Our eyes barely locked before I started to head in the direction indicated, but hesitated.

"Are the city records open to the public?" I asked the middle-aged blonde woman behind the desk.

She glanced at me from her computer screen, "Oh, yes." She said, pointing a thin finger down the hall, "It's the one at the end, there's an engraved plate on the door."

"Thank you," I said, striding down the hall, pushing the door open and walking into a room full of shelves packed with files. The room was a pretty big one, but it was obvious that they were running out of places to stuff the papers. There was also a computer in the corner.

"I'm assuming that the newest files are computerized." Fang remarked, "And the older ones are mixed into this mess."

"Mmm. Great." I muttered, reading the label of a manila envelope. "What papers, exactly, were this address on?"

He sat back in the chair for the computer. "It was one of Nudge's references."

I looked over my shoulder at him. "You memorized it?"

He shrugged as if he didn't know any more than me as to why or how he'd done so.

"Whatever, that's not a very big concern right now." I said, turning back to the shelf, "Where do you think birth records for, oh, fifteen to eleven years ago would be?" I didn't want to start with too narrow of a window, lest I miss anything.

"I don't know, but you can start sifting through those and I'll look it up on here." He said, already typing away at the keyboard.

"Of course, give me the manual work." I muttered.

Turns out that stuff from that time frame were on the computer, so it didn't take us long to narrow the results down. I leaned over his shoulder as he scrolled through the birth records. This close up I could smell his shampoo from the shower he took when we arrived in town, and his face felt very close to my own. Somehow managing to keep my leaderly coolness, I pushed those thoughts to the back of my head.

"Monique," Fang breathed, the mouse hovering over one of the files.

"Well click on it, moron." I replied. He obeyed and a picture came up of a baby surrounded in soft pink blankets. The baby had dark brown eyes, mocha skin and curly wisps of dark hair. "Oh my God, it's Nudge." I whispered.

Fang said nothing and scrolled down. "It says here that she was born to Salina Williams- and was put up for adoption." He spoke up finally, his voice solemn.

"Her mom was only seventeen." I murmured, my eyes skimming the screen. "Oh no. She was so hopeful-"

"And she got what I expected mymom to be when I got what she expected her mom to be." Fang added quietly.

"What about her dad?"

"Uh..." He scrolled down a little bit. "He's not named."

I felt something heavy in my gut. I knew that Nudge would want me to tell her what we'd found, but I hated to think of the sadness we'd see in her face when she heard who her parents really were. "Any updated information on her mom?"

He closed out of the search and started a new one, entering Salina's files. "She moved out of town, New York it looks like."

"And that's all we can do for now, isn't it?" I sighed bitterly.

"At least it's something, Max."

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**Review! Please!**


	20. Chapter 20

**How's all your guys' summers been going? For those of us in the northern hemisphere, anyway. And winter for everybody I missed in that statement? I was sorely disappointed, to be honest. I thought I'd get more time to bum around and all that jazz, but no. I find myself all over the county and then some, not to mention all of the stuff I'm expected to do at home. Oh well, it sure beats school.**

**Chapter Twenty! I've almost reached two dozen! Woot!**

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_**Max POV**_

I was right in my idea of Nudge's reaction. She was crushed, but she wore a strong mask, not about to let her disappointment take her away from us. She kept saying that she had no right to even expect a perfect set of parents in the first place, nonetheless to be upset when those thoughts were dashed.

It wasn't long after we'd gotten back that Michaela insisted that we'd have to leave soon, since the rain was beginning to clear up. She said that the Erasers had their ways. It wouldn't be long before they knew where we were.

The flock, of course, needed some rest. At least a little. Or so I thought.

At first I'd thought that a room on the first floor would be nice, so we wouldn't have to deal with flights of stairs. But in reality, having a room on the second (and top) floor just made it that much more difficult for the Erasers to secure. As soon as the door flew open I shouted at Fang to get the flock out. I was sure he obeyed, but I couldn't be certain seeing as right after that it got a bit sketchy. The flock started to disappear - through the windows I presume - and Erasers started flooding in. I'm pretty convinced I took down at least five of them, but it happened so fast... Sometime after that I was thrown on the floor, a knee digging into my back.

Now I was in what I thought was a trailer. The only light coming from a rather opaque window placed high up on the opposite side. Two other figures hunched against separate walls. Iggy and Kacey had been captured as well.

Kacey being caught didn't particularly surprise me, fact being that she wasn't the best at fighting. Although Iggy was a bit more unsuspected. Sure he was blind, but that didn't mean he was much less capable than the rest of us. More capable than Kacey, that's for sure. Not to sound rude or anything.

At the moment Kacey was playing with the cuffs on her wrists, flexing her hands this way and that, trying to slip out of the restraints. Iggy was staring sightlessly at the wall beside me. We'd not broken the silence but to ask whether we were all okay and to inquire as to whether the flock had managed to escape. To all of our knowledge, they had. That soothed me a bit. Just a bit.

We hit a bump in the road and my back slammed painfully into the side of the trailer. I knew I was covered in bruises and - likely - cuts and scrapes. I couldn't really see anything in order to tell.

"How long have we been driving?" Kacey asked.

"Hour, maybe?" Iggy replied quietly.

"God knows how far we've gone," I mumbled.

"The speed's been pretty constant," Iggy remarked.

"Sixty miles? At highway speed?" Kacey suggested.

"Perhaps." I sighed. "Does it matter?"

"Perhaps." Iggy muttered.

Quiet fell again and remained uninterrupted until the trailer screeched to a halt. The doors in the back flew open. I half-expected light to burst through from outside, but there was only a dim, artificial light. We were already indoors. I guess they had to get smarter sometime, give us fewer chances to escape. I just sorta hoped that they'd have stayed dumb and dull a bit longer.

Erasers swarmed in and the next thing worth mentioning was that I found myself in something that was shockingly similar to a jail cell. I think Kacey and Iggy were in them as well, but I couldn't see them. Not to mention that I had been given a sedative of some sort. I was out cold in a matter of minutes.

_**Fang POV**_

I glanced at Michaela. She'd been oddly quiet since we took off. If I didn't know better, I'd think she felt bad. Guilty, even. Since we really had no backup plan - whatsoever - we finished the flight to San Francisco. Maybe then Max would be able to find us.

Lord knows that we all wanted to chase down those godforsaken Erasers and get those three back, but what were the chances that we'd succeed? They had guns; we were lucky they hadn't lit us up in that hotel. They outnumbered us; probably six to one in the caravan they had going- alone. They'd expect us to follow them; there was no element of surprise at all. It would be a suicide mission and I'm sure we all knew it. The most we could do was trust in their wit and ability to escape.

So I guess our chances were a bit better than they seemed.

**"*"*"**

"It wasn't a bomb," Gazzy was explaining.

"Oh it wasn't now?" Sydney said, waving her sub threateningly.

"No." The Gasman insisted, giving her a sour look and biting into his sandwich with excess viciousness.

We'd only just arrived in San Francisco, stopping at Subway due to the flock's nearly mutual agreement that sandwiches were exactly what they wanted to fill their apparently neglected stomachs. Somewhere in the back of my head I wondered what would happen if they were put on a regular human's food allowance. I came to the conclusion that they'd likely eat the sofa to compensate. They might finally be in the habit of decent hygiene, but they were still ravenous beasts when it came to food. Go figure. We had shoved together a couple tables in order to seat us all in a formation that allowed conversation. To an extent, anyway. Of course, we can all guess the sort of conversation the Gasman was interested in. I hardly had any clue what they were really talking about. It started off as a level discussion about the logo of Mountain Dew (supplied by Nudge's choice of beverage- a 20 ounce bottle of the high-caffeine soda) but they'd diluted the topic so much, I failed to follow.

From across the table and a seat over Dylan broke into their argument, "Hey, is that- ?" He was watching something from over by the door. Just as I was about to look over, Angel made a gagging sound as she nearly swallowed a mouthful of unchewed meatball marinara.

"That's Jeb," She finally managed.

"What?" Nudge demanded, dropping her sub with a dull thud and twisting around in her chair at a rather unnatural angle.

By now everyone at the table besides Michaela was staring across the restaurant, peering around the other customers. Sure enough, there was the lying, two-faced-

"We don't want him to see us," Angel hissed.

"Think we can sneak out the back?" suggested the Gasman.

"Oh yeah, seven super tall kids, well six tall kids and a shorter one, getting up all at once and making a beeline for the door? Not suspicious at all." Nudge interjected under her breath.

"And all of us sitting together won't draw attention?" Michaela remarked.

"Better than the alternative." I added.

"Considerably," Dylan mumbled, "Just- don't do that." We all followed his look to Gazzy, who - if I knew the kid at all - had been working up to a monstrous, likely disgusting belch.

He slouched in his seat, looking shot down. "It's bad to hold it in." He muttered sourly.

"Not when it'd give us away." Angel said tersely. In response, Gazzy glowered at the linoleum.

We waited, trying not to act like we were all on the edge of our seats, ready to jump up and knock a middle-aged man unconscious if he just so happened to glance our way. Against all odds, he never looked over at our group. As soon as he was out of sight, the whole flock seemed to let out a simultaneous breath.

"How much do you wanna bet he really did know we were here?" Sydney said quietly, looking distastefully after Jeb.

"If he did, he did a great job of not thinking about it," Angel disagreed, pushing away from the table.

"We're following him, right?" Nudge inquired.

Surprising even myself, I glanced at Dylan. "Yeah." I said, "Be sure to hang back a bit, though. We don't need to lose anybody else."

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**I haven't heard much commentary from any of you for the past couple chapters, and I'm starting to feel a bit lonely. Comments, suggestions, criticism, complaints, random statements that don't pertain whatsoever to the story... All welcome here! ( Although I won't deny that I'd prefer the first four. ;) )**


	21. Chapter 21

**I've got a lot going these next couple weeks, and I'm not really sure how badly it's going to cut into my time, but just so you know... **

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_**Max POV**_

"Shhh!" Iggy hissed. I fell back into my bunk irritably. A few minutes passed and the sound of footsteps came and dissipated from the doorway to our corridor.

"Do they have a camera in here or something? Every freaking time we try to talk, somebody comes by." Kacey muttered in frustration.

"I didn't see one, but it might be hidden." I replied, just as put-out.

"I wish I knew what _time_ it was." Kacey mumbled.

"Because that would help us _so_ much." Iggy shot back, "I wish I had a bomb. Then we could at least get out- hey, I wonder if..." There was a crash and an "oops" from a couple cells down.

"What in God's name are you doing, Iggy?" I demanded.

"The light bulb-" Was all the response I got.

"And how are you going to explain all the shattered glass and the lack of light to our captors?" Kacey inquired.

"Hopefully we can avoid them..." Iggy said, obviously preoccupied.

I could guess what he was up to. First of all, a light bulb is electrical. Most electrical items have wires. Iggy + wires = contraband. This becomes pretty much common knowledge after so long.

"Just don't electrocute yourself." I warned.

"Max," Iggy said, his voice mildly amused, "Do you doubt my capabilities?"

"I don't want you to get cocky," I disagreed, "Because that will make you careless."

I could see his smirk from two cement walls away. "Oh crap!"

I felt my stomach drop, fearing the worst, but instead I caught the sound of footfalls. This time, though, they didn't travel down the hall. For a moment I thought they'd come to confiscate Ig's invention - whatever it was. Then came the harsh sliding of plastic on stone; three times, once for each cell. Our lunch trays. Yummy. Catch the sarcasm there.

It was better than I expected, though. It actually reminded me a lot of the meals we used to get at Ella's school. So, pretty much, it was some sort of mystery meat with powder potatoes and chopped fruit. At least the fruit tasted mostly like it should.

"What are you making, Iggy?" Kacey asked, finally breaking the silence.

"An explosive. What else?"

"And what exactly are you planning on doing with this explosive?" I added, eyeing a spoonful of what looked like... tater-tot casserole. Maybe. At least we got silverware. Spoons anyway. I don't think they trusted us with anything else. Heck, if they had even two brain cells they should know that we weren't safe with spoons, either.

"Making more like it and breaking our locks. Hopefully." Iggy answered, "And keeping a few to chuck at anybody who gets in our way."

"We don't know what kind of surveillance this place has." Kacey objected, "Even with your bombs we could be walking right back into their hands."

"I guess, since we've infiltrated a few of their places they won't be so likely to underestimate us anymore." I agreed.

"Sadly." Iggy sighed.

"What about the vents? You think we could climb through those?" I suggested.

"Right. At the end of every vent will be a fan, and how do you intend to jam said fan?" Iggy reasoned.

"Spoons." Kacey offered.

"And if the spoon breaks?"

"Then we turn around and try something else." I shot back, slightly flustered.

"We have to try something." Kacey said, "If nothing else we can just sprint down the halls and hope to God that we don't run into a fleet of brawny guards."

"Armed brawny guards." I put my two cents in.

There was a pause. "I've got seven bombs. Let's pray they don't hear this."

"Or blow your fingers off." Kacey interjected.

"That too."

_**Gazzy POV**_ ( :D )

"No, no," Michaela said, "We can't just stake out in front of his apartment. That's loitering. It's generally illegal."

"You should know," Nudge muttered, earning a murderous look.

We'd followed Jeb back to an apartment building, made certain it was his residence, then realized we couldn't barge in, so we resorted to a park a couple blocks away, staking out a bench. Honestly, I was just glad that we didn't look like a bunch of hobos this time. First of all, Fang looked more like the average, run-of-the-mill gang member, dressed in all black - per usual - with his hood pulled up and his arms crossed, glowering, not looking like he belonged in a group of normal-looking kids. Well, all except Dylan, who looked like he should be on the cover of one of Nudge's magazines, maybe one featuring a soon-to-be released action movie where the heroes are trying to come up with a plan of action to defeat the baddies. How fitting. It was a wonder no one had called the cops thinking Fang had kidnapped us. Or that we'd kidnapped Fang. One or the other.

"Okay," Dylan interjected, eyeing them, "Our immediate threats, firstly, don't include Jeb. He's not going to pull out a machete and try chopping off heads. He might be accompanied by one or more Erasers, but somehow, I doubt that."

"He could get ahold of the company." Fang supplied impassively.

"That," Dylan continued with a glance in Fang's direction, holding up an index finger, "Is our most pressing risk." He looked around at us. It kinda felt like we were in one of those police shows, discussing our tactics before infiltrating a con's hideout. It was pretty badass, if I say so myself. "And by the time backup could get there, we'd be gone."

"Very strategic, Beach Boy, but what if Jeb's wised up?" Fang inquired, leaning forward, eyes on the other older birdkid.

Dylan gave him a mildly blank look, "Then we're screwed." He said simply, "But what're the chances of that, anyway?"

"There's nothing you can't expect from guys like Jeb," Fang disagreed.

Dylan looked at him for a moment, "Fair enough."

No one had spoken up, watching the exchange quietly. It wasn't every day those two could talk more than ten words to each other without a few snide comments and sharp glances.

"We're going to pay our friend Dr. Batchelder a little visit, then, hmm?" Michaela asked, a small smile on her lips.

_**Max POV**_

Yeah. It didn't take long for our escape attempt to go awry. We got down just three halls before we were intercepted. Three. _What is this_?

I took a couple steps back, away from the nearly dozen Erasers who blocked the corridor ahead of us. We'd just come through a set of doors that locked from the other side. We were cornered rabbits. At least these Erasers didn't seem to be armed. Maybe we had a chance...

"Dr. Hayden-" Kacey said from behind me, sounding absolutely and completely blindsided. "Let us out!" She begged.

Then I saw the moderately tall platinum blonde at the back of the group. She was likely in her early thirties, a sharp edge to her grey eyes. The name came back to me, Dr. Hayden, the supposed double-agent. The one that was meant to be on our side. The twisted, cruel look in her eyes made me think we'd been duped.

"Why would I do that when you're set on destroying my company?" The doctor said, slipping ahead of a couple Erasers, "I'd definitely lose some pay for that."

I risked a quick glance at Kacey. The poor girl's eyes were huge, confused, and slightly pained. I would've felt sorry for her if I didn't think her a bit immature for not suspecting this at all. Suddenly her expression hardened. I had a feeling she was on the verge of calling Dr. Marie Hayden a very explicit name.

Turning my eyes back on Dr. Hayden, I could sense a monologue coming on. Cliché, much? This was torture. As the lady opened her trap, however, Kacey advanced, landing a punch right in the mouth. The Erasers came at us as soon as Kacey'd taken the first step. One of them _just_ managed to grab my arm before I hit the thug in the face and he clutched his nose, making a sound of pain. In the corner of my eye I saw Kacey elbow a guy in the stomach as he went to restrain her. Iggy already had the third man incapacitated. Once we had all of the guys down for the count, we rushed down the hallway. When we'd almost reached a flight of stairs Kacey called out for us to stop.

"What's wrong?" Iggy asked.

"We have to get out before they notice," I objected urgently.

"Just wait a second." Kacey insisted, staring in the open door of what appeared to be a conference room. I walked back over, shortly followed by Iggy. When I approached I saw that there was a map on the opposite wall. "Jesus, look at this," She said, a tinge of disgust in her voice.

"What is it, exactly?" I inquired, although I had a pretty good idea.

"All of the Itex plants," She replied, "Worldwide."

"There are hundreds," I murmured.

"At least," She agreed. Iggy was listening closely to our conversation, absorbing the information. "But those ones, the ones marked with stars, you don't suppose they're the leading facilities, do you? A hard hit to them would be devastating for the whole company."

"Sure would," I nodded in response, "Quebec, San Francisco, Rome, Sydney, Brasilia, Tokyo..." To name a few.

"All over the place," Iggy remarked. "We should get going."

"True that be," Kacey said.

We headed back for the steps.

_Don't take the stairs. Go left._

I nearly nosedived it then and there. _Long time no... hear, Voice. Wonderful of you to show up._ I broke left, and although I knew Kacey and Iggy were caught off guard, they trusted me and said nothing. A few strides later, I heard reinforcements thundering down those steps. Thank you, Voice. We came up to another set of stairs, and since nothing in my head spoke up, I took them. After a bit of fast-paced wandering, we reached a fire door and I shoved the thick hunk of metal open, descending the escape stairs as fast as I could. The door slammed shut loudly behind Iggy.

"You have _wings_, Max! Let's fly," Kacey offered, "It's one hell of a lot faster!"

"I was getting to it!" I snapped back, tearing off my jacket and jumping over the railing, unfurling my wings as soon as I had clearance and gliding out of that alley.

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**I'm still hoping for some reviews! **


	22. Chapter 22

**Alright, I got this up a bit later than I'd have liked to, but I had eye surgery a couple weeks ago and spent a few days were I couldn't open my eyes and a few days reteaching myself to see and a few days without glasses, so this is about as good as it could get. I also threw in that last section because I felt that you deserved something to fill in the gap. You guys are awesome for reading this far.**

**And thanks to my beta, xxFlutterStutterBOOMBOOMxx for getting this back to me before I had to go camping! :D**

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_**Max POV**_

"I hope I don't have to punch anyone for a very long time," Kacey muttered, "That friggin '_hurt_."

"Well," I said, "Your form was _horrible_."

"I don't know, I think she held her own well enough." Iggy disagreed. When asked how he managed to escape being caught with a broken light bulb, he just smiled and said that Iggy doesn't reveal his secrets. It was mildly frightening.

A pleased smile crossed Kacey's features, "Enough, maybe." I allowed. She _had _taken out Dr. Hayden and two Erasers. More than I thought she could. Not that it was impressive by anyone in the flock's standards. "Not that all of that training we put you through did a whole lot of good."

Her face fell into a glower. "You really know how to make someone feel good about themselves, Max." She sighed.

"I try," I said, chipper compared to her attitude.

"San Francisco?" Iggy inquired.

"I thought so." I said, "So long as we can avoid capture. Again."

"Don't put money on it," Kacey said, looking reluctant, "Max, you know how you had a chip in your arm?"

"Yeah..." I replied cautiously.

"I think I have something like that," She said, her eyebrows furrowing slightly as she raised a hand, touching a spot on her shoulder. "Dr. Hayden" - there was a tinge of venom in the way she said the name - "mentioned it."

I was quiet for a second or two. "It would explain a lot." I admitted.

"That's what I thought, too." She said, sounding a bit downcast.

"You realize that I can't let you hang around the flock with a tracking device under your skin." I pointed out. It felt a tinge mean to be so blunt, but it was the facts. I couldn't endanger my flock to cater to Fang's tagalong.

"I know," she responded agreeably.

"Maybe you could just have it taken out, if we find a doctor..." Iggy trailed off, apparently feeling more optimistic about the situation than me.

"So I was hoping," Kacey said, "Then we could mail the sucker to Russia and keep the nasties at bay for a while longer."

"Wait," I interjected, "If you have a tracer, then why didn't they come after us in Arizona?"

"I'm sure they still thought I was on their side." Kacey replied.

We had a little over half an hour to fly to San Francisco. Maybe, just maybe, we'd get lucky and be able to find the flock. Maybe the Voice would be kind enough to lead us there. For some reason, I felt like it would.

_**Dylan POV**_

"Don't. Touch. Me." Michaela enunciated, backing away from Nudge. I didn't doubt that Michaela would've already resorted to physical restriction if she wasn't aware that someone from the flock would knock her out if she laid a single hostile finger on Nudge.

"Michaela," Nudge argued, "It's just _makeup_. It's not going to kill you." She said seriously, then - much more joyously - "It'll enhance your beauty." The Gasman made a rude noise from across the room.

I was mildly amused by the exchange. Michaela wouldn't allow a single swipe of makeup to come within a foot of her. That much I was sure about. She'd always been a tomboy. I thought it had something to do with her previous life; wanting to make right something that was wrong or maybe that was just who she'd always been. Heck, the girl had even asked to shave her head not long after she'd been revived.

"Why do you insist that I wear makeup?" Michaela demanded, leaning back into the depression that held the hotel room's window, desperate to get as far away from the mascara-wielding teenager that trailed her as she possibly could.

Who had given Nudge mascara, you may ask? No one. The girl proved just as adept in shoplifting as she did in hacking.

"Be_cause_- !" Nudge said, clearly flustered, "Just once! Let me do your makeup once."

"No."

"Please?"

"No!"

"Puh-_leeease_?"

"Jesus, _no_!"

Put out, Nudge lowered her hands, "Angel?" She tried.

"Sure, Nudge," Angel said, perfectly content to be Nudge's Barbie.

"The testosterone in this room has reached an all-time low if you're all just going to allow this." Michaela said, "I think I'm going to go out and get some fresh air before you supposed 'men' start talking about Lady Gaga's latest outfit." She opened the door, then closed it again, "Or maybe I could take post outside of Jeb's?" She suggested, eyes toward Fang, "We could get an idea of when he's there and when he's not. And if anybody's staying with him."

He contemplated this for a moment. I knew he'd be a bit shaky about accepting an idea from the Eraser, but she had a point he simply couldn't turn down. I wouldn't doubt that he had been thinking about how we'd do just what she'd stated. "Take two with you." He said finally. Smart decision. That would split our gang as even as it was going to get, and while none of us wanted to imagine it happening, if one group was put out of operation, we'd still have a few avians in the equation. "We'll start shifts."

Gazzy got to his feet, "I don't want to stay in here with-" He cut a glance over at Nudge and Angel, as the former combed the younger girl's hair. Then his eyes landed on Fang, as if he was hoping he'd come along. It was between me and Fang as to who else would go with them. Neither of us would enjoy staying in a hotel room with three pre-teen girls, but someone had to. I assumed he'd rather keep the three girls in line than worry about my authority over them.

"I'll go," I announced, standing from my chair and heading towards the door.

It was apparent that my thinking had been correct when Fang said, "And I'll stay," I got a look from him. "Don't lose him." Speaking of the Gasman, that was quite the demand. "Be back in five hours."

I rolled my eyes, stepping out of the hall behind the other two.

I don't know, it seemed as if the seriousness of the situation overrode the animosity between Fang and me. We thought similar in terms of strategy. Fang wouldn't do all of the talking that was necessary to lead the flock, and the flock didn't respect or trust me enough to follow my lead, so with us - as obscene as the suggestion was - working together, the flock would be able to operate almost as well as when Max was heading all our actions. Almost.

I still hoped she'd break out soon, if not already. I couldn't imagine Iggy, Kacey, or herself being harmed if she had any say in the outcome, and as we all knew, Max _always _had a say in _everything_.

_**Michaela POV**_

"You can't tell me that there isn't another person in that apartment." I stated firmly.

"There isn't really any solid evidence..." Fang said skeptically. "I'm not saying it's not probable. I'm just saying that we can't be certain."

"I will bet my revolver on it." I insisted.

"You still have a gun?" Gazzy asked incredulously.

I gave him a _duh _look. "You think I'd go around unarmed?"

"Max checked to see if you had any weapons." Fang threw in, eyeing me in a suspicious way.

I felt my face color slightly. "Yeah, well..." I trailed off a bit sheepishly.

At first it had been all business. Joining the flock to avoid my impending _retirement_. Maybe I'd get the time to do that first duty I was assigned, the one about keeping the birdkids alive. But the fellow recombinants were growing on me. They kind of reminded me of the kids I knew in my old life. I was still a little wary of the ones I didn't know from their files, such as Sydney, Kacey, and that Skiter kid - if I ever did meet him, anyway. I also found it hard to trust Fang. It was obvious the rest of them did, but I couldn't shake it from my mind that at the lab he was often referred to as some sort of competition against Dylan. To be honest, it surprised me how much Dylan meant to me. I hadn't exactly _sincerely _cared about anyone since I was revived. I remembered how I felt towards my family and close friends and all, but I hadn't the slimmest hopes of seeing them ever again, so caring about them was a bit redundant. I mean, for them to be faced with their resurrected daughter would only rip open wounds that were struggling to heal. Even if I seemed - and in fairness, I kind of was - a bit frosty, I knew I couldn't inflict that kind of pain on others. But then, there would never have been the possibility of such pain if science hadn't gone meddling where it didn't belong.

Speak- er... _think _of the devil; Dylan elbowed me in the side. "You don't suppose you could enlighten us as to what all you've been carrying around?" I could hear the edge to his voice. He was mostly just asking for the rest of the flock rather than himself.

I sighed, pulling the revolver from the specially designed pocket inside my jacket, careful not to point the muzzle at anybody. I was already on the fringes of their trust as it was. The gun itself wasn't a very big thing; the rounds that were in it didn't need much more bite than themselves alone, being that they had a small dosage of a very wicked chemical cocktail that could have you unconscious in seconds just as soon as a single drop made it into your blood system. The entire dose could kill a full-grown man in less than ten minutes. The brainiacs had been smart enough to create a casing that would only release the compound after the shot was fired.

Fang took the gun from me and emptied the charges from it, looking over them briefly, noting that they were obviously tailored. He set the emptied weapon down on the coffee table, seeming to wait for the next item of interest.

No need to yet inform them of the twin revolver on the other side of my jacket. The one loaded with regular rounds.

Dylan wasn't so easily fooled. "_All _of what you've been carrying around, Michaela." He prompted.

I groaned, pulling the other gun out of my jacket and setting it down on the coffee table beside the other one. The flock seemed caught between looking frightened, distrustful, or impressed.

"I knew there was another one." Fang remarked, "These weren't the rounds you shot me with." He set the modified bullets in question down on the table, picking up the other revolver and emptying that one as well.

"Lucky for you I was feeling charitable that day. Not only did I deliberately miss all of your vitals, but I used the less lethal rounds." I chipped in, sounding far too upbeat for the topic.

Fang gave me a reproachful look that had _you're going to scare the children _all over it. Him, on the other hand, I didn't scare at all. Much to my dismay. Beside me, Dylan looked amused by my frustration. I think those two made me feel more patronized than I'd felt in either of my lives.

I crossed my arms and scowled at Fang, waiting for some sort of verdict.

"That's all, now?" He inquired, slipping the modified rounds into his pocket.

"Yea- Hey! Those are mine!" I snapped.

His eyebrows rose a fraction of an inch. "Not anymore."

"She thinks you're being very condescending." Angel piped up.

"Do you even know what condescending means?" Nudge asked quietly, prodding the younger girl in the arm with a bright green nail.

"Do _you_?" Sydney retorted, effectively switching on the Nudge Channel.

"Can I have them back," I asked, referring to the metal mechanisms on the glass-top between us. "Or have they been confiscated as well? You already took all of the ammunition."

Fang seemed to contemplate this for a moment, his eyes narrowing slightly on me.

"Don't you think that if I wanted to shoot you that I'd have done it already?" I pointed out.

"You already did shoot me." He reminded me.

"You know what I mean."

"Fine," He said, handing back one of the revolvers.

I had noticed that he had a dark, tanned skin tone. Olive, I think they'd call it. But I hadn't really noticed until we passed the gun, our skin very natural-looking against the cold, hard metal, how similar my own complexion was. I suppose it could be the difference in the rest of our appearance that seemed to dilute the likeness.

I stowed the two empty guns back in my jacket, a bit rueful that one of the people I trusted least in the group had the most deadly bits of my own weapons. Who knows, maybe sometime Fang would come to find that the rounds had mysteriously disappeared. Though he'd know the first person to suspect. Or..._maybe _I'd play by the rules. Especially since Dylan was giving me that look. The one that makes it obvious that he knows I'm looking for loopholes. Sometimes being even remotely close to people had its down sides.

"We kinda got distracted." The Gasman pointed out. "Now, what about this other person that's staying with Jeb?"

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**Is it possible that I could come back from camping to find a couple new reviews? I'm not the one in control of that!**


	23. Chapter 23

**To Born To Fly: I really appreciate your words, and that you took the time to review! I've been sort of skirting around the idea of a flashback for a while now, but as you'll soon see, I've decided to throw one in.**

**To You (Yes, you. Sitting there reading this author's note.): There's a much more important author's note at the bottom of the page I'd like you to be aware of.**

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_**Kacey POV**_

"Any news from the Voice?" I asked conversationally.

"Nada," Max replied coolly, but I knew she'd be starting to get frustrated by now. "I just feel like we should keep walking."

"No, how about we lie down on the sidewalk and have a nice nap?" Iggy suggested sarcastically.

"Be my guest." I muttered.

"I wouldn't if you paid me." Max mumbled, eyeing the ever-frequent trampled gobs of gum on the concrete from behind her sunglasses.

When one girl looking about Nudge's age had recognized Max, we'd all agreed it'd be best to do _something _to obscure her from being so easily spotted. The solution was cheap drugstore sunglasses. Of course, Iggy had insisted he get a pair too. Max and I had been planning to instruct him to get the dorkiest looking pair on the rack, but he caught on to our strategy almost immediately.

"Depends on how much money we're talking about." Iggy grinned.

"Well you can't see the thick layer of _gross _that they used to pave this walk," Max remarked.

"Or the fine smattering of _positively foul _we find every now and then," I added.

"Nice imaging, there." Iggy commented, not looking too affected by our assessment of the surroundings.

"We turning any time soon?" I asked Max. We'd been on the same street for several blocks now and it wasn't difficult to notice the change in scenery.

"Maybe," she replied uncertainly.

"What if we don't find them?" I inquired. It was a question that needed to be asked. I don't think Max really had a plan for if we stayed separated.

"We'll find them," Iggy muttered. "We always do."

"Exactly. Luck has to run out sometime," I responded.

"Take a right at the next intersection here," Max announced suddenly. I looked over at her. The Voice?

"What's to the right?" Iggy asked.

"I'm not sure yet," Max said slowly.

_**Nudge POV**_

It was our second -or was it third? I can't really remember- time set on stakeout by Jeb's. By now we'd all agreed that there were one or two other people living with Jeb. Said people never came outside, of course, but Jeb bought enough groceries to feed an entire family. Or him and a mutant similar to us. It was a pretty close shave.

To be honest, we chose a bad time to head to watch, being that this was the time Jeb normally got back from work. We were approaching the end of an alley, where it opened up to the sidewalk that hugged the front of Jeb's building. Of course, we still had the same groups, so it was Fang in the lead, then Angel, then me and Sydney.

Suddenly, a strong breeze swept between the two buildings we were walking in the midst of, snagging my hat and twirling it onto the sidewalk. I made a surprised sound and dashed out to get it, momentarily forgetting our current task. "Mine!" I called. I looked up once I'd snatched up the fedora, and my eyes met the blue eyes of Jeb, who stood halfway across the building, steps away from the front door of the apartment building, a few yards from me at most. I nearly lost my grip on the hat. I'd given us away. I'd ruined all our surveillance and planning for the past few days (I couldn't really remember if it had been two or three days... or maybe I was wrong entirely. I was never good with clocks or calendars). It was over.

To my complete bewilderment, however, he didn't pull out a cell phone or yell at an unseen pack of Erasers, but merely stared for a long moment before taking a couple steps in my direction.

"Nudge?"

_What am I supposed to say to that? 'Hey there, backstabbing Judas. How was your day? Oh why yes, the weather has been positively balmy the past couple days.' Give me a break._

"Nudge, what are you doing here?"

_Maybe I should just not say anything. That would make Fang happy, I'm sure. Or maybe he wants me to lead him in the wrong direction. I'm pretty sure he won't be very happy if I don't do _something _soon._

"Is the flock alright?" He seemed to be growing more anxious at my lack of acknowledgement.

_OMIGOSH. What do I say?_

"Jeb," Fang greeted, coming to my rescue. He stood beside me, a step ahead.

Fang's arrival seemed to stem Jeb's apprehension. "You're all here, then?"

"Not quite-" I said, relieved to find that my customary verbosity was back where it should be. It was quickly cut off with a sidelong look from Fang. "Oops." Now I was spilling confidential information.

Concern flashed in Dr. Batchelder's eyes. "Who's not?"

Fang said nothing and the two locked gazes for a moment.

"Max is one of them," he breathed, "I guess it makes sense, since you're taking lead now..." He trailed off. "Do you need somewhere to stay?"

"No," Fang said, a hint of venom tracing his voice, "We can manage."

"Fang," Jeb reasoned, "If you need anything, you're welcome at my place. The key is under the bottom of the doorframe. I'm not the enemy here."

"Don't hold your breath," Fang replied coldly.

Jeb shook his head and turned, going into his building.

"Fang-" I began.

"Not now, Nudge," he said, heading back towards the others, briefly touching my arm as he passed.

_**Michaela POV**_

_I rubbed my wrist ruefully. I hated needles. Sharp, sterile objects just weren't my thing. After I had been revived they had checked my vitals and blood daily. Then it was weekly... and now once a month. It was more a nuisance than anything._

"_Alright now, Mickey,"__came the deep, warm voice of the doctor. I didn't know who this guy was; normally I had a tall, quiet guy. Today my doctor was short, round, and overly friendly. I mean, Mickey? Really? I'm not a mouse with white gloves and Dumbo ears. "Just look over my shoulder." I did as he asked and a bright light danced in front of my face for a moment. The light was replaced by the track lighting on the ceiling and I heard the door open. "Back to your room you go,"__he said._

_I walked down the hall outside the check-up room, as they called it. I had no intention of going to my room. What? So I could stare at the blank walls for hours? I don't think so. Instead, I headed toward the sitting room on the far end of the building, the one next to the stairwell. It was the only place I'd found so far with windows that you could not only see out of, but had a halfway decent view. And if I ever wanted company, I knew that's where I should go._

_I pushed through a set of doors into the stairwell and ascended to the next floor, entering that floor through a second set of doors. The familiar smell of coffee hit me as I strode into the room. It was decorated entirely of muted, neutral colors. Chairs made to look__fashionable__but not really be comfy were spread about, most lined the walls and a small kitchenette sat nestled into the far corner. A pair of wide, thick-glassed windows__was__set side-by-side on the north-facing wall. A nurse sipped from a nondescript white mug as she read a thin, beaten-looking novel on a barstool at the island in the scant excuse for a kitchen. The only other person in the room was a familiar blond figure, lounging on one of the conjoined seats that was supposed to compensate for a couch. He was flipping channels on the ancient television hanging from the wall._

_When the door shut with a resounding _clunk _he looked over his shoulder at me. A faint smile crossed his lips, "Same as usual?"_

"_Of course," I replied. "Nothing's ever new here."_

"_Except you,"__he objected, gesturing to a chair across from him._

_I ignored the chair and sat on the floor, which was about as comfortable. "It's been three months; I'm not that new, particularly since I was alive before that."_

"_Don't rub it in. You hardly let me forget."_

"_Can I help it?" I shrugged._

"_Absolutely, you just don't display the motivation to change."_

"_So," I mumbled, getting irritated with him for not settling on a channel. I snatched the remote from him and set it on the floor on the other side of me._

"_Nice choice." He remarked. I looked up at the TV to see a make-out session running on a soap. I fought back a blush and pressed the power button. I was still human enough to feel embarrassment._

"_Heard anything about anything?" I asked. I hadn't seen Dylan for a couple days. I figured it had something to do with the doctors._

"_Yeah," He replied, "About that..."_

"_Is it something to do with the flock?" I inquired. I'd heard a bit about them. Six nearly-human kids with wings. There were a few different cases throughout the building that were being trained to do various things to keep the flock alive, because apparently they were the only group capable of breaking down Itex at the time. Each case was sworn to not tell any of the others what information they were given, so as to better perform their duty. I'd bent that rule a bit and told Dylan the main idea of my knowledge._

_You see, there was a lot of Itex that was legit at a glance, but that was all a hoax to keep the officials away. The company had multiple back-up plans in the case that one would prove no longer possible. The only way to take it down would be to get inside and tear it apart from the top of the pyramid. The flock had special DNA. Something the scientists of Itex hadn't realized until we'd already figured it out. The heart of Itex was entirely inaccessible to nearly everything, including humans. As soon as you got inside, specially-manufactured guns would zap you into oblivion. The DNA of the people working in that building__was__the only__kind__programmed__not to__be shot. Thing was, the flock's DNA didn't register with the guns whatsoever. The flock needed to finish the job before a solution to the technical error was found. It seemed such a simple answer to save the world, but the doctors treated it with such delicacy that it became a complex operation._

"_I'm going to Africa soon with Dr. Hans." Dylan said. "I'm going to meet up with the flock."_

"_So you're going to be the upstart that gets them on their way?" It was set that something needed to happen to get the flock speeded up a bit. This would involve getting them split up._

"_I guess." He mumbled._

"_What's the line of fire?" I asked._

"_The two oldest ones, Maximum and Fang,"__he explained, "Are somewhat of a couple. I guess I was created to be perfectly compatible with Max."_

"_Oh, and I'm assuming Fang's the one who's going to split from the flock?"_

"_Yes. Apparently he's stubborn, though."_

"_And he won't be happy with you moving in on his girlfriend." I added. "You'll have to work hard to convince him to leave without spilling the whole story. He'll be the only thing standing in your way."_

_He looked at me and nodded. He was taking the mission very personally, I could tell. That kind of take on these kinds__of things could be good, but it could also be fatal._

"_How soon?"_

"_Next week." He replied._

"_Really?" I was a bit disappointed;__I'd never really talked to anyone else in the compound. One person was enough for me. And now he was going to be taken elsewhere._

_I think the Eraser DNA I'd been given changed who I was. I didn't trust anyone. I didn't like being around people. But I knew that some of the changes to my demeanor were because of my old life. Such as, I no longer wanted anything to do with anything considered _girly_._

"_You should be sent out soon, too, Mic,"__he tried._

"_I'm still training. Apparently my shot isn't as good as they think it should be, and you know, stuff like that."_

_He opened his mouth to say something, but the doors on the far side of the room flew open._

"Dylan_!"__one of the doctors said irritably, "It's ten past three! Dr. Gunther Hagen wants to speak with you."_

_Dylan sighed, muttered an apology to me and walked across the room._

I was rudely awoken by a punch in the gut. I sat up, an arm wrapped around my stomach to see Gazzy on the bedside, "You sleep like the dead," he accused, "It's almost time for us to go on stakeout."

I blinked. So I'd been dreaming. Of a couple months ago, no less. Thinking back, maybe Dylan's way of shouldering the mission was better than my own at-arm's-length take. I'd objectified every member of the flock so much, that now they hardly even seemed like the people I'd been told of for weeks on end. Even more irking, Dylan had been right. Two weeks later I'd been stationed with Itex.

"I'm getting up, settle down," I said irritably, climbing out of the hotel bed.

Just then the door opened somewhat forcefully. I peered around the corner to see Fang walking in, the three girls behind him. He looked kind of aggravated.

"What happened?" Dylan asked from the chair.

"That would be what we need to talk about," Fang said. Nudge winced as she closed the room door.

"You got caught, didn't you?" I asked. Fang shot me a look.

"He offered to let us stay with him," he announced reluctantly, crossing his arms.

"What exactly happened?" Dylan repeated.

"The wind got my hat, so I ran out to get it and Jeb saw me and he started talking to me, and my mouth didn't work, and Fang-" Nudge started up, talking too fast, as usual.

"Jeb wanted to know about what was going on with the flock," Sydney cut across her. "He told us that we're welcome there and where he keeps the key."

"He seemed really sincere," Angel added, "No bad thoughts at all."

"That doesn't necessarily mean anything," Fang muttered.

"Because a person's mind can lie to itself?" The Gasman retorted.

"Just being around him could be potentially dangerous." Fang pointed out. Jeb would definitely be on Itex's radar.

What followed was a sequence of events that I could tell irritated Fang. Nearly the whole group wanted to go check out Jeb's home base. Fang was dead-set against it. I managed to keep my mouth shut through the whole argument, but I noticed Dylan silently agreeing with certain points that the younger kids made. It looked as if Fang would have to swallow his pride and admit defeat.

Fat chance.

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**Anniversary is, well, not really getting a lot of views, and lately the amount of reviews being posted for this story are nearly nonexistent. I'm going to have a very busy month ahead, and so I was thinking I'd just pause this story until I have the amount of time I'd like to continue writing chapters. If I suddenly got an influx of reviews, I would do my best in getting another update up, but I'd still be obscenely busy. I appreciate all of you reading this, even if you've not posted a single review. Thank you! And have a wonderful August. **


	24. Chapter 24

**In celebration of me getting a trip to state during the Minnesota 4-H Livestock Weekend, I decided to get this posted. I'll have zero access to not only internet, but my computer as well, and I'll be super-duper busy with all my fair-related stuff, so it seems that I won't get much of any writing done for a while. Ya'll should be happy I got this posted, I wasn't planning on it!**

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_**Max POV**_

"I swear I just saw Fang," I said under my breath. "Right there, I just saw him," I insisted in irritation.

"Max..." Iggy began.

"I'm not crazy, Ig! I saw him!" I snapped.

"He's not there anymore, anyway," Kacey put in.

"He couldn't have gone far." I started jogging through the crowd of after-work commuters, pushing my way to where I'd seen Fang. As I shoved a man's arm, nearly at the exact spot Fang must have been standing I heard someone call my name. Someone who certainly wasn't part of the flock.

"Max!" I whipped around to look at the man I'd shouldered out of the way. A familiar face was brought forth in my memory. Jeb.

I went rigid, not about to greet him with any level of warmth. "Where's Fang?"

"I'm not sure," Jeb responded. I knew he wasn't lying, per se, but he was avoiding the truth.

My eyes narrowed on him. "I need to know where Fang is."

"He doesn't seem as concerned about finding you." It felt like he'd punched me in the gut. "Please, Max. Come with me to my apartment, I'm sure Fang will be there soon."

By now Iggy and Kacey had caught up. Kacey had grabbed Iggy's wrist sometime after my departure, and I didn't blame her. Despite the fact that Iggy could normally maneuver impeccably well, the sidewalk was mildly cluttered and the sounds of the street diluted even my senses. Regardless of this, however, Ig looked exceptionally annoyed at being lead around. As she made her way through the crowd, Kacey seemed to be aware that this was a touchy exchange between me and Jeb because she approached with the utmost care, pointedly yanking on Iggy's arm when he opened his mouth to say something.

He obviously didn't understand the memo because he immediately snapped out a sharp "Hey!"

"Iggy!" Kacey hissed under her breath as if he were the most ignorant creature she'd ever encountered.

"_What_?" he shot back in irritation.

Of course, Jeb had recognized Iggy's voice before Kacey had even identified him.

It was very disconcerting that Jeb managed to convince us to be dragged onto the top floor of his apartment building, where he lived in the equivalent of the penthouse, which was pretty much just a glorified apartment that took up the entire floor level. But you know what really got me? The kid who was lounged in the living room watching TV.

"Skiter?" Kacey asked in complete shock. She'd practically done a double-take when she crossed the threshold into the room.

I heard him breathe a cuss word quietly that would have escaped a human's hearing. I walked over to the archway that separated the kitchen from the living area.

"Jeb!" Skiter's voice called. "You didn't tell me about this!"

"It was a bit of a last-minute thing." Jeb called back from behind me. I think he was trying to figure out what he was going to feed us.

"Last-minute my a-"Skiter was mumbling, walking out of the living room, his eyes sweeping over Kacey, Iggy, and me only momentarily. I got the vibe he wasn't completely surprised.

"Language!" Jeb cut across him. "The rest are discussing their options. I expect them here sometime in the afternoon tomorrow."

"What do you mean?" Iggy demanded, just barely beating me to the punch.

Jeb's eyes landed on mine. "You did see Fang. But he had just been in a situation not unlike the one you were put in seconds afterward. He only had half of his group with him, so he had to go back and nail down a decision."

"They're all okay?" I asked, pulling up a seat at the bar that protruded from the kitchen. Iggy took up the spot beside me, but Kacey hung back and leaned on the wall dividing the kitchen and living room.

"I'm assuming so. Nudge was perfectly fine," he said, then added, "I only really saw her and Fang."

"Oh don't water down the details." Skiter objected, pouring himself a glass of orange juice. "You and I both know they've been keeping post outside the apartment for the last couple days."

Personally, I didn't like the way Jeb and Skiter reacted to each other. Skiter treated Jeb like someone he mildly disapproved of, but respected. Jeb treated Skiter like a nephew or similar. I was getting some pretty messed up waves from these two.

"Care to explain to them what you mean?" Kacey retorted.

"You're in on this?" I turned on her.

"Not directly," she replied.

"There are eyes and ears everywhere," Skiter said ominously.

"Skiter!" Kacey barked.

"What? It's true. I know we were in different compounds, but you couldn't have escaped that fact," he shot back.

"Be serious here!" She countered, her eyes narrowing.

"Kace is right, Skiter. They deserve to know the details about what's going on," Jeb said solemnly.

"And somebody had better explain pronto!" I interjected.

"There are several different operations at work, here," Skiter said finally. "Michaela, Sydney, and I all came from the same one. Dylan may have too, but I'm not sure. We're all specifically trained to keep you alive. Kacey came from one of the more twisted ones even farther from the law. You've already been informed pretty well on her. Jeb's been an inside agent for a few different systems." Skiter eyed the person in question dubiously. "But we believe he's now working under the company that created Sidd, Mic, and me. You already know you were created by the School, which is a branch from the company that trained Kace." He stopped for a second, massaging one of his temples, "You following this?"

"Yup," Iggy said, though I had my doubts on whether that was true.

"What did you mean by having eyes and ears everywhere?" I asked.

"In short," he said, "There are people who are convinced they can tell you your entire futures."

"What do you mean?" Ig asked.

"Let me see if I heard this right," Kacey broke in, "It's those number-heads in the Nameless that are predicting these things, isn't it?"

"You're not wrong," Skiter said reluctantly.

"Who's the Nameless?" I interrupted.

"The company that's training people to keep you alive," Skiter replied with a dry smile. "They don't have a known title, so we've come to calling them the Nameless."

"Okay," I said, "And what's about these people predicting our futures?"

"There's a lot of..." Skiter contemplated the proper word, "Complications to that explanation."

"They're not really telling your true future," Kacey assured me, "They just want to know what it will take to get you to win this battle of yours."

Skiter didn't look so sure, but he made no attempt to object.

"Is there anything else I should know?" I asked testily.

"Not at the moment," Jeb replied.

"He means, nothing else we can tell you that won't likely cause things to end tragically because you were told too soon," Skiter reasoned.

"Skiter!" Jeb chided.

"It's true." He shrugged.

"So the flock should be here soon, huh?" Kacey began. "Please tell me this place is bigger than it looks."

"Four bedrooms, two bath." Jeb said with an amused expression. "Pull-out couch and plenty of pillows and blankets."

"Good." Iggy sounded nearly satisfied. "How many people are we talking, anyway?"

Kacey started counting off on her fingers, running through them very quickly. "Twelve. All together."

"Twelve people," I repeated. "Two bathrooms."

Kacey made a face. "Oooh."

"Doesn't this put us at a severe risk to all be together?" Iggy reminded us.

"The Nameless have just found a loop in Itex's surveillance. I expect that their tracing of you will be shut down for a week, possibly a couple days more," Skiter explained.

"And if you're all staying here, it should take them a while after that to locate you again," Jeb added.

"But we won't know they've found us until it's too late," Kacey pointed out.

"I beg to differ," Skiter grinned.

"Someone bugged their system, didn't they?" Kacey inquired sharply.

"Yes," Skiter replied, still grinning.

"It wasn't you," Kacey continued.

"Nope."

"But you hacked into the system that weaseled into Itex's system."

"Perhaps."

"How soon beforehand will we know they're coming for us?" I asked.

"Immediately when they pinpoint your location. It could take hours for them to organize a team to come after you." Skiter responded, becoming serious again.

"So, we'll have plenty of time to get out of here before they find us." Iggy prompted.

"Correct."

* * *

**I really don't want to preach to you guys, and even less do I want to sound like a brat, but to be honest, I'm really disappointed that I haven't received any reviews for, well... weeks. I know I've had a _few_ views, but... I'm just not getting the kind of incentive I'd like to continue this story. I might start back up once I have most of the rest written out, since we're finally getting into the true, finite, action of the story. I'd really like to hear from you all. If only just a couple people tell me they want me to continue, I'll probably honor that. I just want to be made aware of your opinions, particularly if I keep doing something that annoys you or a detail you don't particularly like. A lot of times, I don't notice things that would get under even my skin until you point it out to me!**

**I honestly appreciate you all reading, but I'm getting into my sophomore year within a couple weeks and I've not got a study hall this time around. It's just that if I don't have a source for my ambition to write... I won't make the effort to take time to write like I have been before. I feel like I've been good about not demanding however many reviews in order to post new chapters, so maybe this time I could get just a couple?**


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